BABA

Alibaba Group Holding

DOUBTFUL — METHODS DIFFERstock

Is BABA Halal?

E-commerce and cloud are generally permissible, but Alibaba's mixed digital, financial, media and VIE activity remains methodology-dependent.

What You Should Know

Alibaba operates e-commerce marketplaces, cloud computing, digital media, games, health services and Ant-related financial technology. Its fiscal year ended March 31, 2026 filing reports debt/assets of 13.62%, liquidity/assets of 15.02%, receivables plus cash/assets of 8.52% and interest/investment income of 8.55% of fiscal-year revenue. The filing does not allocate a universal prohibited-revenue numerator across all business lines, so financial-service contracts, media, games, health products and VIE activity require qualitative review.

⚠️ Concerns

  • Ant-related payments, lending, consumer finance and merchant-finance contracts require riba review
  • Interest and investment income is 8.55% of fiscal-year revenue and requires methodology-specific purification
  • Digital media, games, health products and marketplace merchant categories need qualitative classification
  • VIE, China regulatory, data-security, competition and governance risks remain material
  • Supply-chain labor, counterfeit-goods, privacy, cloud security and environmental impacts require review

Current quantitative Sharia screen

Based on 20-F figures for the period ended 2026-03-31; calculated 2026-07-14.

RMB · millions
Interest-bearing debt / assets
13.62%Within limit
Below 33.333% under FTSE Yasaar

259,996 / 1,909,570

Cash + interest-bearing securities / assets
15.02%Within limit
Below 33.333% under FTSE Yasaar

286,840 / 1,909,570

Receivables + cash / assets
8.52%Within limit
Below 50% under FTSE Yasaar

162,702 / 1,909,570

Non-compliant income / revenue
8.55%Above limit
No more than 5% under FTSE Yasaar

87,512 / 1,023,670

FTSE Yasaar
v4.6, February 2026
Financial
Fails
Overall
Fails

Debt/assets is 13.62%, liquidity/assets is 15.02% and receivables plus cash/assets is 8.52%; the examined FTSE financial ratios pass, but interest and investment income is 8.55% of fiscal-year revenue and exceeds the 5% activity benchmark used here.

MSCI Islamic (total-assets series)
October 2024 methodology
Financial
Pass
Overall
Incomplete

Debt/assets is 13.62%, liquidity/assets is 15.02% and receivables plus cash/assets is 8.52%, below the examined MSCI total-assets limits; business-activity and income classification remains incomplete.

Malaysia SAC financial ratios
single 5% activity benchmark adopted November 2025
Financial
Pass
Overall
Incomplete

The examined financial ratios pass at debt/assets 13.62%, liquidity/assets 15.02% and receivables plus cash/assets 8.52%; the activity and income review remains incomplete and this is not an official classification of a foreign-listed security.

Market-cap denominator methods
MSCI M-Series, S&P and Dow Jones methods differ
Financial
Not calculated
Overall
Incomplete

A properly licensed and reproducible historical market-cap series is not stored, and activity/income classification is incomplete, so market-cap methods are not estimated from a current spot price.

Business-activity disclosure

Alibaba operates e-commerce marketplaces, logistics, cloud computing, digital media and entertainment, online games, health services and Ant-related financial technology through a complex VIE and affiliate structure. Trade, logistics and cloud services are generally permissible, while lending, payments, media, games, health products, merchant categories and investments require methodology-specific review.

Limitation: The filing does not allocate all revenue and income by a universal prohibited-activity taxonomy, particularly for Ant-related finance, media, gaming, health, merchant categories and VIE or affiliate activity.

Purification

Alibaba discloses interest and investment income but does not prescribe a scholar-approved purification percentage; readers should follow the methodology and scholar they use.

Inputs, assumptions and primary sources
  • Amounts are RMB millions from Alibaba's fiscal year ended March 31, 2026 Form 20-F and rounded to the nearest million.
  • Debt includes current bank borrowings of RMB28,224 million, non-current bank borrowings of RMB47,450 million, unsecured senior notes of RMB117,485 million, convertible unsecured senior notes of RMB55,861 million and exchangeable bonds of RMB10,976 million.
  • Cash is RMB131,530 million. Interest-bearing securities use RMB155,310 million of short-term investments; equity investments and non-interest-bearing balances are excluded.
  • Accounts receivable uses RMB31,172 million of accounts receivable and contract assets, net. Fiscal-year consolidated revenue is RMB1,023,670 million.
  • Alibaba reports RMB87,512 million of interest and investment income, net. The filing does not provide a universal prohibited-revenue numerator across all e-commerce, cloud, media, gaming, health, Ant-related and VIE activities.

This is a reproducible financial screen, not a fatwa. A failed total-assets screen can coexist with a pass under a market-cap methodology. ZakatInvest keeps the qualitative assessment separate so numerical thresholds do not erase material context.

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