SQ

Block Inc. (Square)

DOUBTFUL — METHODS DIFFERstock

Is SQ Halal?

Payments technology is mixed with material lending, BNPL, deposit and bitcoin activities that fail the qualitative screen.

What You Should Know

Block operates Square commerce and payments, Cash App financial products, consumer and merchant lending, BNPL, bitcoin services and a bank subsidiary. Its March 31, 2026 filing reports debt/assets of 19.59%, liquidity/assets of 18.69% and receivables plus cash/assets of 25.93%; the financial ratios pass, but direct credit, deposit and bitcoin activity remain material.

⚠️ Concerns

  • Square Loans, Cash App Borrow and BNPL are direct credit products requiring riba and contract review
  • Customer funds, bank deposits, payment settlement and custodial structures require review
  • Bitcoin ecosystem revenue and the balance-sheet bitcoin investment require a separate cryptocurrency methodology
  • Consumer-protection, credit-loss, privacy, fraud and regulatory obligations remain material ethical topics

Current quantitative Sharia screen

Based on 10-Q figures for the period ended 2026-03-31; calculated 2026-07-14.

USD · thousands
Interest-bearing debt / assets
19.59%Within limit
Below 33.333% under FTSE Yasaar

7,835,020 / 39,986,081

Cash + interest-bearing securities / assets
18.70%Within limit
Below 33.333% under FTSE Yasaar

7,475,593 / 39,986,081

Receivables + cash / assets
25.93%Within limit
Below 50% under FTSE Yasaar

10,369,365 / 39,986,081

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

Debt/assets is 19.59%, liquidity/assets is 18.69% and receivables plus cash/assets is 25.93%, below the examined asset-based limits; FTSE's income ratio cannot be completed because interest income is embedded in aggregated revenue-from-other-sources disclosures.

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

Debt/assets is 19.59%, liquidity/assets is 18.69% and receivables plus cash/assets is 25.93%, below the examined MSCI total-assets limits; core financial activity remains a material qualitative concern.

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

The examined financial ratios pass, but direct credit, deposit, BNPL and bitcoin activities require continuing review; this is a calculation against SAC ratios, not an official classification.

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

A licensed historical market-cap series is not stored, and business and income classification remains incomplete.

Business-activity disclosure

Block operates Square commerce and payments, Cash App financial products, consumer and merchant lending, BNPL, bitcoin services and a bank subsidiary. Payment technology is not equivalent to a prohibited business by itself, but direct credit, deposit, BNPL and bitcoin activities are material core operations requiring a conservative activity screen.

Limitation: The filing does not provide a universal prohibited-revenue numerator that separates every interest-bearing, fee-based, bitcoin and payment activity into a single Sharia taxonomy.

Purification

Interest income is included in aggregated revenue-from-other-sources disclosures and no scholar-approved purification percentage is prescribed; readers should follow the methodology and scholar they use.

Inputs, assumptions and primary sources
  • Amounts are USD thousands from Block's March 31, 2026 Form 10-Q.
  • Debt includes current long-term debt of $1,574,374 thousand, current warehouse funding facilities of $283,562 thousand, non-current warehouse funding facilities of $258,938 thousand and long-term debt of $5,718,146 thousand; customer payables are excluded.
  • Cash is $6,858,357 thousand. Interest-bearing securities use short-term debt securities of $462,611 thousand plus long-term debt securities of $154,625 thousand at fair value; customer-funds cash is excluded from corporate liquidity.
  • Accounts receivable combines settlements receivable of $1,224,007 thousand and consumer receivables, net of $2,287,001 thousand. First-quarter total net revenue is $6,056,847 thousand.
  • Interest income is embedded in revenue from other sources and is not separately quantified in a universal prohibited-income numerator.

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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