Because they are not asking the same question. Seven published standards, applied to the same filings at the same moment, produce different answers for 39% of the companies HTR can screen.
Every disagreement below starts with one of two choices each standard makes, and neither is a mistake by anybody. Of the 82,532 pairwise splits HTR measured — one company that three pairs of standards disagree about counts three times — 16% are between standards that share a ceiling and differ only in the denominator, against 14% that share a denominator and differ only in the ceiling.
The ceiling. The seven standards HTR computes set their debt limit between 30% and 33.333%. A three-point spread, which decides every issuer sitting in that band and nothing else.
The denominator — and this one matters far more. Some standards measure debt against market capitalisation, some against total assets, some against a 24- or 36-month average market cap. A company whose share price halves has a debt ratio that doubles under a market-cap standard and does not move at all under an asset-based one. Nothing about the business changed. The verdict did.
This is why a stock can be in one Islamic index and excluded from another, and why a screener you trusted last year may have changed its mind about a company that did nothing.
| Standard | Ceiling | Measured against | Passing | Failing | Unverified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FTSE Shariah | 33.33% | total assets | 12,734 | 17,819 | 14,280 |
| Usmani | 33.0% | total assets | 12,522 | 18,113 | 14,198 |
| AAOIFI | 30.0% | market cap | 12,242 | 18,250 | 14,341 |
| MSCI Islamic | 33.33% | total assets | 8,881 | 21,887 | 14,065 |
| S&P Shariah | 33.0% | 36-month average market cap | 5,854 | 10,734 | 28,245 |
| Dow Jones Islamic | 33.0% | 24-month average market cap | 5,305 | 11,510 | 28,018 |
| MSCI Islamic M-Series | 33.33% | 36-month average market cap | 5,134 | 11,590 | 28,109 |
Ordered by how many issuers pass. That is a spread, not a ranking — no standard here is better than another, and HTR does not have a view on which one applies to you.
Real issuers from HTR's corpus where at least one standard says pass and another says fail. Open any of them to see the ratio each verdict rests on.
| Issuer | Passes under | Fails under |
|---|---|---|
| ADMA | 6 AAOIFI DJIM FTSE MSCI M SP SHARIAH USMANI | 1 MSCI |
| EXLS | 6 AAOIFI DJIM FTSE MSCI M SP SHARIAH USMANI | 1 MSCI |
| TEM | 6 AAOIFI DJIM FTSE MSCI M SP SHARIAH USMANI | 1 MSCI |
| AGYS | 6 AAOIFI DJIM FTSE MSCI M SP SHARIAH USMANI | 1 MSCI |
| OONEF | 4 AAOIFI DJIM MSCI M SP SHARIAH | 3 FTSE MSCI USMANI |
| YZOFF | 4 AAOIFI DJIM FTSE USMANI | 3 MSCI MSCI M SP SHARIAH |
| YMT | 3 DJIM MSCI M SP SHARIAH | 4 AAOIFI FTSE MSCI USMANI |
| ILAG | 3 DJIM MSCI M SP SHARIAH | 4 AAOIFI FTSE MSCI USMANI |
| ADTN | 6 DJIM FTSE MSCI MSCI M SP SHARIAH USMANI | 1 AAOIFI |
| ADDHY | 4 AAOIFI DJIM MSCI M SP SHARIAH | 3 FTSE MSCI USMANI |
| FTAI | 4 AAOIFI DJIM MSCI M SP SHARIAH | 3 FTSE MSCI USMANI |
| FRRDF | 5 AAOIFI DJIM FTSE MSCI M SP SHARIAH | 2 MSCI USMANI |
| REFR | 4 AAOIFI DJIM MSCI M SP SHARIAH | 3 FTSE MSCI USMANI |
| ZJK | 6 AAOIFI DJIM FTSE MSCI M SP SHARIAH USMANI | 1 MSCI |
| NMTC | 4 AAOIFI DJIM MSCI M SP SHARIAH | 3 FTSE MSCI USMANI |
| TAYD | 4 AAOIFI DJIM MSCI M SP SHARIAH | 3 FTSE MSCI USMANI |
| ZTS | 4 AAOIFI DJIM MSCI M SP SHARIAH | 3 FTSE MSCI USMANI |
| PFE | 3 FTSE MSCI USMANI | 4 AAOIFI DJIM MSCI M SP SHARIAH |
| RPRX | 1 AAOIFI | 6 DJIM FTSE MSCI MSCI M SP SHARIAH USMANI |
| PREM | 1 FTSE | 6 AAOIFI DJIM MSCI MSCI M SP SHARIAH USMANI |
| PFAI | 6 AAOIFI DJIM FTSE MSCI M SP SHARIAH USMANI | 1 MSCI |
| ACB | 4 FTSE MSCI SP SHARIAH USMANI | 3 AAOIFI DJIM MSCI M |
| CGC | 2 FTSE USMANI | 5 AAOIFI DJIM MSCI MSCI M SP SHARIAH |
| WFCF | 6 AAOIFI DJIM FTSE MSCI M SP SHARIAH USMANI | 1 MSCI |
| G | 6 AAOIFI DJIM FTSE MSCI M SP SHARIAH USMANI | 1 MSCI |
| NXL | 3 DJIM MSCI M SP SHARIAH | 4 AAOIFI FTSE MSCI USMANI |
| MU | 5 AAOIFI DJIM MSCI M SP SHARIAH USMANI | 2 FTSE MSCI |
| ACFN | 4 AAOIFI DJIM MSCI M SP SHARIAH | 3 FTSE MSCI USMANI |
| ERII | 4 AAOIFI DJIM MSCI M SP SHARIAH | 3 FTSE MSCI USMANI |
| STAA | 4 AAOIFI DJIM MSCI M SP SHARIAH | 3 FTSE MSCI USMANI |
| TLX | 4 AAOIFI DJIM MSCI M SP SHARIAH | 3 FTSE MSCI USMANI |
| CRWD | 4 AAOIFI DJIM MSCI M SP SHARIAH | 3 FTSE MSCI USMANI |
| GWRE | 6 AAOIFI DJIM FTSE MSCI M SP SHARIAH USMANI | 1 MSCI |
| LLY | 4 AAOIFI DJIM MSCI M SP SHARIAH | 3 FTSE MSCI USMANI |
| TGTX | 4 AAOIFI DJIM MSCI M SP SHARIAH | 3 FTSE MSCI USMANI |
| ADUR | 1 AAOIFI | 3 FTSE MSCI USMANI |
| SOTK | 4 AAOIFI DJIM MSCI M SP SHARIAH | 3 FTSE MSCI USMANI |
| JZ | 5 DJIM FTSE MSCI M SP SHARIAH USMANI | 2 AAOIFI MSCI |
| MDB | 6 AAOIFI DJIM FTSE MSCI M SP SHARIAH USMANI | 1 MSCI |
| IOVA | 5 AAOIFI DJIM FTSE MSCI M SP SHARIAH | 2 MSCI USMANI |
Ordered by how often the two part company. Each page names the ceiling, the denominator, and the companies that fall between them.
Nothing — deliberately. HTR computes all seven and shows you all seven. It does not blend them into a single score, because a blended verdict would hide exactly the disagreement you need to see, and it does not pick a winner, because that is a question of scholarship rather than of arithmetic.
HTR provides financial and Shariah-screening research. It is not a fatwa, and where a verdict matters to you, the methodology it rests on is the thing to take to someone qualified to rule on it.