The Short Answer
Yes, dividends from halal stocks are halal. BUT you need to purify them because most companies earn some interest income.
Why Dividends Aren't 100% Clean
Even companies with permissible core businesses may hold conventional interest-bearing investments. The amount changes every filing period and the resulting income is not always disclosed separately.
Purification should use a documented non-compliant-income amount under the investor's chosen methodology, not a generic percentage assigned to every dividend.
How Much Should You Purify?
Check ZakatInvest screener for each company's interest income percentage. Typical purification:
- Apple (AAPL): no reliable percentage published here because the current filing does not isolate non-compliant income
- Microsoft (MSFT): combined interest-and-dividend income was 1.05% of current nine-month revenue, which is an upper bound rather than an exact purification percentage
- Tesla (TSLA): disclosed interest income was 1.94% of current quarterly revenue; Tesla does not pay a regular cash dividend, so no generic purification payment is prescribed here
How to Purify
- Calculate total annual dividends received
- Multiply by company's interest income %
- Donate to charity (zakat or sadaqah)
Example
Assume a company's documented non-compliant-income ratio under your chosen standard is 1.5%, and you receive $1,000 in dividends.
Purification amount: $1,000 × 1.5% = $15
Donate $15 to charity. Keep $985.