WBD

Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.

HARAM — SCREEN DOES NOT PASSstock

Is WBD Halal?

Entertainment — major producer of haram content.

What You Should Know

WBD owns HBO and Discovery networks. Its March 2026 Form 10-Q reports $97,837 million of assets, $32,466 million of interest-bearing debt, $3,264 million of cash, $5,009 million of receivables and $8,893 million of quarterly revenue. Debt/assets is 33.18%, liquidity/assets is 3.34%, receivables-plus-cash/assets is 8.46%, and disclosed interest income is 0.25%; the core entertainment model still includes significant haram content.

⚠️ Concerns

  • HBO adult content
  • Explicit entertainment production
  • Sports, advertising and streaming mix
  • Debt/assets is near the examined threshold
  • Paramount merger and financing arrangements

Current quantitative Sharia screen

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

USD · millions
Interest-bearing debt / assets
33.18%Within limit
Below 33.333% under FTSE Yasaar

32,466 / 97,837

Cash + interest-bearing securities / assets
3.34%Within limit
Below 33.333% under FTSE Yasaar

3,264 / 97,837

Receivables + cash / assets
8.46%Within limit
Below 50% under FTSE Yasaar

8,273 / 97,837

Non-compliant income / revenue
0.25%Within limit
No more than 5% under FTSE Yasaar

22 / 8,893

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

Debt/assets is 33.18%, liquidity/assets is 3.34%, receivables-plus-cash/assets is 8.46% and disclosed interest income is 0.25%; the business-activity screen fails because entertainment content is core.

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

Debt/assets is 33.18%, liquidity/assets is 3.34% and receivables-plus-cash/assets is 8.46%; the core entertainment activity independently fails.

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

Debt/assets is 33.18%, above the examined 33% Malaysia limit; WBD's core entertainment activity also remains impermissible under the qualitative assessment.

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

A properly licensed and reproducible historical market-cap series is not stored; market-cap methods cannot cure the core activity failure.

Business-activity disclosure

WBD owns film and television studios, HBO, Discovery networks, streaming services, sports rights and advertising businesses. The core entertainment model includes explicit and other content that is not permissible under the existing qualitative assessment.

Limitation: The filing reports distribution, advertising and content revenue but does not isolate a scholar-universal prohibited-content numerator.

Purification

WBD discloses $22 million of interest income, but it does not provide a complete prohibited-content numerator or scholar-approved purification percentage.

Inputs, assumptions and primary sources
  • Amounts are USD millions from WBD's March 31, 2026 Form 10-Q.
  • Interest-bearing debt includes $1,493 million current debt and $30,973 million noncurrent debt; lease liabilities are excluded.
  • Cash and cash equivalents are $3,264 million; receivables are $5,009 million and quarterly revenue is $8,893 million.
  • Interest income is $22 million, or 0.25% of quarterly revenue. Reported content revenue of $1,887 million is used as a conservative disclosed activity proxy, not as a claim that every content dollar is impermissible; distribution, advertising and sports activity remain unallocated.
  • Entertainment, streaming, sports and advertising activities require qualitative review in addition to the financial ratios.

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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