What Makes Sukuk Halal?
This installment of our educational series helps explain what differentiates Islamic investment certificates, often called sukuk (“suh-KOOK”), from conventional bonds, and identifies the distinctive features that form the core of what makes sukuk Islamic-compliant, or halal. Sukuk exhibit characteristics similar to conventional bonds, which are generally prohibited according to Islamic investing principles. Typically, sukuk securities have a stated maturity date, obtain a credit rating from a credit rating agency, such as Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, and offer a stated annual investment income rate, similar to a coupon offered by a conventional bond. At first blush, sukuk and conventional bonds seem different in name only, but a deeper look exposes their fundamental differences.
What Makes Sukuk Halal?
Sukuk’s bond-like attributes lend familiarity and promote greater acceptance and adoption by investors globally. Yet, below the surface sukuk are distinct in form and substance to abide by the Islamic faith’s strict prohibition on the payment of interest (riba).1 Whereas bonds represent a legal debt obligation, sukuk reflect an undivided beneficial ownership interest in an asset. Therefore, to understand what makes sukuk investment certificates halal, it is important to examine the process by which they are formed and structured.
Context & Background
The application and interpretation of religious scripts can vary within the same religious community while still adhering to the core tenets of a particular faith. Similarly, within the Muslim community diverse interpretations emerge across different religious sects and are subject to cultural and geographic influences within a broad range of Islamic schools of thought. For example, differing interpretations exist among Islamic fundamentalists and modernists yet they each adhere to core Muslim tenets.
Recognizing the Muslim community is diverse, Islamic investment certificates do not simply embody the primary tenets of the Muslim faith, but also the spirit of Islamic investing principles through the process of the securities’ formation. The certificates must not only avoid investment in business activities prohibited by Islamic principles, such as alcohol, gambling, and pork processing, but also be structured to avoid indebtedness and interest payments associated with bonds.
The global Muslim community represents roughly 23% of the world’s population, making Islam the second-largest religion
While beyond the scope of this educational piece, there are several authors who offer thoughtful guidance on the integration of Islamic finance. For example, Usman Hayat, CFA, and Adeel Malik, PhD, state in their circulation Islamic Finance: Ethics, Concepts, Practice, “At its heart, the Islamic approach to economics emphasizes a balance between competing considerations: wealth accumulation versus wealth distribution, private incentives versus public interest, the spiritual versus the material, the needs of the present generation versus the needs of future generations, and the ‘here’ versus the ‘hereafter.’”2 The authors later add, “What is different about Islamic economic thought, however, is the reliance on divine revelation as a source of knowledge and on its moral articulation.”
Sukuk: Financial & Religious Integration
Two primary features distinguish Islamic-compliant securities from conventional fixed income securities. The first is the security’s structure, and the second is the requirement that the financial instrument be reviewed by an Islamic religious body to ascertain its halal status prior to issuance.
Sukuk Structure
Islamic economic thought favors profit-sharing modes of financing in which the financier assumes some business risk. As a result, both the investors and the issuers of the investment certificates share in the enterprise’s risks as well as returns. Investors tend to share profits and losses proportional to their ownership interests (akin to shares) in the certificates.
To be considered halal, sukuk must conform to Islamic investing principles. The investment certificate itself must represent an ownership or beneficial ownership interest in assets of a commercial enterprise. This requires the certificate’s structure to reflect a legal transfer of ownership of the underlying assets from the issuer to the investor. Payments to the certificate holders are based on the net profits of the underlying assets. The issuer cannot guarantee the security’s investment return, such as a coupon rate, or establish a predetermined price, such as a principal value, at the end of the investment certificate’s tenure; hence establishing a true risk-return relationship.
In contrast, conventional bondholders receive cash flows that are independent of the amount of profit or loss earned from the funds raised through issuing bonds. Unlike shareholders, bondholders receive income that has been determined and agreed upon in advance. As a result, creditors avoid direct exposure to the uncertainties, or risks, of the underlying assets or business enterprise. Rather, their risk is tied to the creditworthiness of the issuer. In other words, creditors do not directly share the risks faced by the enterprise they finance. It is for this reason that interest-based bonds are “risk-transferring” rather than “risk-sharing” contracts.6 Furthermore, sukuk investors may obtain a higher value at the end of the investment certificate’s tenure if the market value of the security’s underlying asset or business enterprise appreciates. Bondholders receive only the return of their original principal, or par value, upon the security’s maturity.
Integration of Islamic Principles: Review & Oversight
To be sanctioned as halal, issuers of sukuk must obtain a fatwa and undergo the process of religious review and approval by Islamic scholars, prior to issuance of the certificates. 7
Fatwa “FahT-wah”
A legal opinion or decree handed down by an Islamic religious leader 9
The Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI), a Bahrain-based Islamic financial standards organization, furnishes guidelines mandating ongoing security monitoring by a board of Islamic scholars. Each security’s prospectus must explicitly mention the obligation to abide by Islamic rules and principles, and an Islamic board must approve the procedures of the issue and monitor the project’s implementation throughout its duration. 8
It is important to note that AAOIFI only establishes rules and guidelines for market participants regarding a security’s compliance with Islamic principles. AAOIFI does not ascertain or opine as to whether any particular issuer’s security meets or exceeds the guidelines. A host of other Islamic financial standard-setting organizations aim to establish best practices, such as the Malaysia-based Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) that promotes and enhances Islamic financial services, as well as the Saudi Arabia-based Islamic Fiqh Academy, among others. As a result of the multitude of influential standard-setting organizations, differences among competing sets of guidelines can and do exist. Despite this, there is general collective agreement of what makes sukuk halal.
What makes sukuk halal?
| Sukuk | Conventional Bonds | |
| Underlying Asset | Proof of ownership in an asset | Debt obligation |
| Legal Structure | Holders each hold an undivided beneficial ownership in underlying assets | Issuer has a contractual obligation to pay bond holders interest and principal on certain specified dates |
| Halal considerations | The underlying assets are halal | n/a |
| Pricing | Pricing based upon value of underlying assets | Pricing based on credit rating of issue and issuer |
| Valuation | Buyers purchase assets that have value | Buyers act as creditors in implicit loan agreement |
| Investment rewards and risks | Holders receive a share of profits from the underlying assets (and accept a share of any loss incurred) | Holders receive regularly scheduled interest payment for the life of the bond, and the principal is returned at the bond's maturity date. |
Conclusion
While Islamic certificates may superficially exhibit characteristics common to conventional bonds, the extent of these similarities is limited to features that promote broader acceptance among investors. The tenet of risk-sharing in conjunction with returns tied specifically to the security’s underlying asset performance, untethered to any promissory assertion of investment outcome, clearly set these investment certificates apart from conventional bonds. Sukuk certificates constitute evidence of ownership of the underlying assets or the right to their use or services. Sukuk, therefore, facilitate investment, not lending. Furthermore, these securities incorporate a systematic review by a reputable advisory board to ascertain that the investment activity conforms to Islamic principles.
Sukuk certificates constitute evidence of ownership of the underlying assets or the right to their use or services
Having served American Muslim investors for over 25 years, Saturna Capital recognizes that halal investment allocation choices customarily have been limited to equities and cash. The Amana Participation Fund aims to offer a third asset class to serve the financial planning needs of Muslim investors: a halal option that parallels the income-producing, historically lower-volatility, and principal-preserving characteristics traditionally available to conventional bondholders. With its stated objectives of capital preservation and current income, the Participation Fund expands opportunities for investors who abide by Islamic principles and for others who seek less traditional alternatives.
Additionally, mutual funds in particular offer these benefits:
- Diversification
- Liquidity
- Professional management
- Regulatory oversight
It is important to note that the Participation Fund is not a cash alternative or deposit account, but rather is best suited for investors with an investment time horizon of at least two or more years. The sukuk market has experienced favorable growth and broader acceptance within the investment community, however it is still viewed as a newly-developing and nascent market. Please carefully review the Fund’s prospectus regarding risks and disclosures or seek the advice of a professional advisor before investing.
