MCD

McDonald's Corp.

DOUBTFUL — METHODS DIFFERstock

Is MCD Halal?

Total-assets financial screens fail on 66.80% debt; official menus include pork, while the filing does not disclose a defensible prohibited-revenue percentage.

What You Should Know

McDonald's ordinary restaurant and franchise activity is permissible in principle, but official menus include bacon and McDonald's USA does not certify or claim its U.S. menu as halal. The March 2026 filing shows debt above every examined total-assets threshold while identifiable liquidity and receivables ratios pass. Because the company does not disclose revenue by pork, halal certification, slaughter method, or other screened menu category, ZakatInvest preserves a doubtful overall verdict instead of inventing a percentage or claiming universal consensus.

⚠️ Concerns

  • Debt was 66.80% of total assets
  • Official menus include pork products
  • McDonald's USA does not claim its U.S. menu is halal-certified
  • Screened menu and franchise revenue is not separately disclosed
  • Animal welfare, slaughter method, labor, nutrition, marketing, packaging, waste, and supply-chain impacts require review

Current quantitative Sharia screen

Based on 10-Q figures for the period ended 2026-03-31; calculated 2026-07-12.

USD · millions
Interest-bearing debt / assets
66.80%Above limit
Below 33.333% under FTSE Yasaar

40,105 / 60,037

Cash + interest-bearing securities / assets
1.95%Within limit
Below 33.333% under FTSE Yasaar

1,170 / 60,037

Receivables + cash / assets
6.00%Within limit
Below 50% under FTSE Yasaar

3,602 / 60,037

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

Debt is 66.80% of total assets, above the 33.333% limit. Cash plus identified interest-bearing securities is 1.95% and receivables plus cash is 6.00%; the income and business-revenue screens remain undisclosed.

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

Debt is above the 33.33% total-assets limit even though the identifiable liquidity and receivables ratios are below their limits.

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

Debt is above 33% of total assets, and the screened business-revenue percentage is unavailable. This is a calculation against the SAC ratios, not an official SAC classification of a U.S.-listed security.

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

A properly licensed and reproducible 24- or 36-month issuer market-cap history is not yet stored, so the old spot-market-cap claim is removed rather than estimated.

Business-activity disclosure

McDonald's operates and franchises restaurants. Ordinary food service is permissible, but official menus include bacon and other pork products, and McDonald's USA states that it does not certify or claim its U.S. menu items as halal. These facts require a prohibited-activity screen at the consolidated issuer level.

Limitation: The filing does not disclose system or corporate revenue by menu ingredient, halal certification, slaughter method, or market-level alcohol sales. Pork and certification concerns are evidenced, but a defensible prohibited-revenue percentage cannot be calculated and must not be replaced with an unsupported estimate.

Purification

Neither potentially prohibited menu revenue nor interest income is separately disclosed. A fixed purification percentage would therefore be invented rather than calculated.

Inputs, assumptions and primary sources
  • Total assets, cash and equivalents, accounts and notes receivable, and long-term debt use the March 31, 2026 balance sheet in the Form 10-Q.
  • The balance sheet reports 40,105 of long-term debt and does not present a separate current debt balance. Current liabilities include accrued interest but accrued interest is not counted again as principal debt.
  • No separately identified interest-bearing securities balance is reported. Investments in affiliates are not automatically classified as interest-bearing securities.
  • Revenue uses the 6,517 total for the quarter ended March 31, 2026, matching the balance-sheet period.
  • The statement reports net nonoperating expense rather than separately disclosed interest or other non-compliant income, so no purification numerator is inferred from the net amount.
  • McDonald's reports franchised-restaurant revenue, company-operated restaurant sales, and other revenue, but not revenue by pork, halal certification, alcohol, meat-slaughter method, or other Sharia-screened menu category.

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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