Business · Standards we look for

The shared bar — for businesses.

Six dimensions, 15 criteria. Each criterion has the same shape: why it matters, how we detect it, what the ideal looks like, and the concrete remediation steps the business owner can take. Empty cells in the directory mean we don’t have evidence yet — every criterion below is something the business can actively raise.

This is a working bar, not a gotcha. Where we detect a gap, we open an engagement-track conversation. We don’t publish a gotcha headline.

On this page

BZ · Zakat & financial discipline
BV · Community vendor commitment
BH · Halal & product integrity
BG · Community give-back
BE · Environmental stewardship
BC · Regulatory & operational integrity

BZ · Zakat & financial discipline

#01

Corporate zakat paid on inventory and qualifying assets

Why it matters: Zakat is the financial spine of a Muslim business. Inventory, receivables, and qualifying cash reserves all carry the obligation. Most owners know this in principle and yet most US Muslim businesses have no documented zakat calculation on their books. Surfacing the practice is the point — donors, customers, and partners all read it as a signal of seriousness about Islamic financial discipline.
How we detect it: Owner-submitted annual zakat calculation alongside the basis (inventory turnover, receivables, qualifying assets), plus the recipient mix where the business chooses to disclose it. Reviewed against the published methodology.
What we’d love every business to have: An annual zakat calculation on file, with the methodology stated. Recipients named or anonymised at the owner's discretion. Repeated year over year so the ledger is durable.
How to improve · concrete remediation

#02

No interest-bearing operating, savings, or treasury accounts

Why it matters: Riba is not a grey area. Operating accounts that accrue interest, savings accounts at conventional banks, treasury sweeps into money-market funds — each is a place where a Muslim business can quietly drift into haram. The Ihsan bar is no interest-bearing accounts anywhere on the balance sheet, with the substitutes documented.
How we detect it: Owner-submitted disclosure of banking and treasury arrangements, with the bank, account type, and shariah-compliance framing on each. Where a shariah-compliant deposit or murabaha facility is in use, the supporting attestation is referenced.
What we’d love every business to have: Every account on the balance sheet is non-interest-bearing — current accounts, qard-hasan deposits, or AAOIFI-aligned shariah-compliant facilities. Documented.
How to improve · concrete remediation

#03

Shariah-compliant investments and reserves

Why it matters: Where a Muslim business holds reserves longer-term — endowment-style, multi-year capital plans, founder retirement funds — those reserves are deployed somewhere. They should not be deployed into haram instruments, into companies complicit in atrocities, or into the surveillance-tech stack that targets Muslim communities. The Ihsan bar is shariah-compliant AND community-harm-screened.
How we detect it: Owner-submitted investment-policy statement plus disclosure of the screening framework (AAOIFI, recognised shariah board, internal scholar attestation). Where a public allocation exists, we cross-check against the named instruments.
What we’d love every business to have: A written investment-policy statement that names the shariah-compliance framework, the community-harm exclusion list, and the review cadence. Reviewed annually by a named scholar or AAOIFI-aligned framework.
How to improve · concrete remediation

BV · Community vendor commitment

#01

Published sourcing policy naming Muslim-vendor preference

Why it matters: Every business chooses where its operating dollars exit: hosting, processing, CRM, accounting, legal, insurance, raw materials, logistics. When comparable Muslim-owned alternatives exist and meet the market, choosing them keeps the Muslim economy circulating. The policy is the public commitment; the ledger is the proof.
How we detect it: Public scrape for sourcing / procurement / suppliers / vendors pages on the business's own website, looking for explicit language about Muslim-owned supplier preference and the categories it applies to.
What we’d love every business to have: A standing page that names this commitment by category (hosting, processing, professional services, raw materials, logistics) and reports the realised share of spend annually.
How to improve · concrete remediation

#02

Verified supplier→buyer edges across the community

Why it matters: Where two audited businesses confirm a supplier-buyer relationship, the score is exactly as credible as the verification. Confirmed edges build the supplier graph the rest of the network uses.
How we detect it: Owner-submitted supplier list, cross-confirmed with each named supplier when they're in the Ihsan ledger. The share-of-spend metric is computed against the rubric and posted on the listing.
What we’d love every business to have: A growing share of vendor spend visible as verified edges, year over year.
How to improve · concrete remediation

BH · Halal & product integrity

#01

Current halal certification with a recognised issuer

Why it matters: The dimension that matters most to the Muslim consumer at the moment of purchase. A current certificate from a recognised issuer is the strongest signal we can surface.
How we detect it: Owner-submitted certificate + recognised-issuer public registries feed the listing directly. We display issuer, standard, scope, and expiry on every certified tile.
What we’d love every business to have: Current certificate, scope that matches the product line being sold, recognised issuer.
How to improve · concrete remediation

#02

FDA / USDA recall and warning-letter history clean

Why it matters: Recalls and warning letters are public. They’re also more common than any single business owner expects — and how a business handles a recall is a stronger signal than whether one ever happened.
How we detect it: Auto-lookup against FDA recall enterprise reporting + USDA FSIS recall feeds. Cached daily.
What we’d love every business to have: No active recalls or unresolved warning letters. Where a historical recall exists, the response to it is documented.
How to improve · concrete remediation

#03

Self-claimed halal language matches certification on file

Why it matters: If the signage says halal but no certificate is on file, the BH score doesn’t mark the business as denied — it flags the gap so the consumer can ask. Absence of a certificate is unconfirmed, not denied.
How we detect it: Website + signage scrape for halal language. Cross-checked against owner-submitted certificates; mismatch flagged.
What we’d love every business to have: Either: (a) self-claimed halal backed by a certificate of matching scope, or (b) no halal claim where no certificate is on file.
How to improve · concrete remediation

BG · Community give-back

#01

Annual community-giving statement

Why it matters: Across the Muslim economy, businesses collectively hold the kind of revenue base that could anchor masjids, schools, refugee programs, and emergency relief if even a small share were returned deliberately. Today most of that giving is invisible — neither the giver nor the recipient sees the ledger. A published annual statement makes the commitment legible and the impact measurable.
How we detect it: Business self-disclosure on its own website, cross-checked with recipient confirmations from masjids and Muslim nonprofits already in the Ihsan nonprofit catalog. Audited financials accepted where shared. Owner-submitted records pulled where present.
What we’d love every business to have: A standing /community page on the business website with: fiscal-year revenue (or profit), total community giving, named recipient breakdown with their permission, in-kind hours, and the pledge for the year ahead.
How to improve · concrete remediation

#02

Recipient confirmation from Muslim nonprofits

Why it matters: A pledge alone is unfalsifiable. A pledge confirmed by the recipient — a masjid, school, or relief org already in the Ihsan nonprofit catalog — is the moment the score becomes citable.
How we detect it: When a business names a recipient in its giving statement, we surface that to the nonprofit’s Ihsan listing and let them confirm or correct the amount.
What we’d love every business to have: Every named recipient confirms the figure on their own books; the score reflects only confirmed giving.
How to improve · concrete remediation

BE · Environmental stewardship

#01

Verified third-party certification

Why it matters: Khulafāʾ al-arḍ — stewards of the earth — is a substantive religious frame, not a marketing one. The BE score weights verified third-party certification materially higher than self-claimed green badges precisely because the third-party check is what makes the claim credible.
How we detect it: Auto-lookup against each certifier’s public registry. Where a business holds a current certificate, we surface the certificate, the standard, and the expiry date — no extra work for the business owner.
What we’d love every business to have: Current certificate on file with a recognised issuer, scoped to the relevant product or operational area.
How to improve · concrete remediation

#02

Disclosed operational metrics (energy, waste, packaging, supply-chain footprint)

Why it matters: Substance over marketing. Whatever metric the business actually measures — Scope 1+2 energy, waste-to-landfill, recycled-content packaging, supplier-emissions — is more valuable disclosed partially than withheld until a perfect report is possible.
How we detect it: Self-disclosure via the engagement track. EPA ECHO public-records pull for material violations.
What we’d love every business to have: Whatever metrics the business measures, published annually with the methodology stated. EPA ECHO clean.
How to improve · concrete remediation

BC · Regulatory & operational integrity

#01

State Secretary-of-State registration in good standing

Why it matters: The cheapest, most basic compliance signal. A business that lets its state registration lapse is signalling either inattention or active dissolution — either way, donors and customers should know.
How we detect it: Auto-lookup against the state SoS business search (or OpenCorporates’ aggregated mirror) using the business’s legal name and state.
What we’d love every business to have: Active status, current annual report on file, registered agent listed.
How to improve · concrete remediation

#02

BBB rating + complaint history

Why it matters: Where a business is BBB-listed, the rating and complaint count are a low-noise public signal. Where the business is not BBB-listed, that’s also worth knowing — and we mark it that way rather than penalising it.
How we detect it: Public BBB scrape on business name + city + state. Cached weekly.
What we’d love every business to have: A- or better rating, resolved complaints (closed by mutual agreement) rather than unresolved.
How to improve · concrete remediation

#03

OSHA + DOL Wage & Hour clean record

Why it matters: Worker treatment is a substantive religious matter (the Prophet ﷺ said pay the worker before his sweat dries). Two public datasets cover the basics: OSHA inspections / violations (workplace safety) and DOL Wage & Hour cases (wage theft, unpaid overtime, child labor).
How we detect it: Auto-lookup against osha.gov Establishment Search and dol.gov WHD compliance data.
What we’d love every business to have: No serious OSHA violations in the most recent five years. No WHD findings unresolved.
How to improve · concrete remediation

We work with you, not against you.

If you run a business and want to improve on any of these, the Ihsan Standard engagement track is free. Reach out, share what’s in flight, and we’ll work through it together. Publishing a gap is always a last resort — and never without right of reply.

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