Arındırma Nasıl Yapılır? Purifying Dividends and Interest in Turkey (2026)

Arındırma (purification) means giving away the part of your investment income that came from sources Islamic law does not permit, so that what you keep is clean. In Turkey the method follows the TKBB Danışma Kurulu's standard on share issuance and trading, which Kuveyt Türk Portföy and Albaraka Portföy cite as the basis for the purification calculators on their sites. The rule for the money itself comes from the Diyanet: give it to those in need or to the public good on behalf of its true owners, without expecting reward, and never to a mosque. For a BIST share you apply the company's non-compliant income ratio to your dividend; for interest credited to a conventional account you give away the whole amount.

Why purification exists: the screen lets some impure income through

Halal equity screening in Turkey admits companies whose main business is permissible but which still earn a small share of income from interest or other non-compliant activity, provided that share and the company's interest-bearing debt and cash stay under the thresholds in the TKBB standard. Our explainer on the TKBB screening standard covers the thresholds, and our guide to screening BIST stocks shows how to apply them. The consequence is that a dividend from a screened company can contain a sliver of interest income, and the katılım approach is to let the shareholder hold the stock but give that sliver away.

That is why the fund managers publish purification figures. Albaraka Portföy's Arındırma Hesaplama page states that under its principles the impermissible earnings of companies whose shares are held must be purified, that the TKBB Danışma Kurulu set the purification principles in its Pay Senedi İhracı ve Alım Satımı standard, and that the page lets investors determine purification amounts both for individual shares and for Albaraka's funds. Kuveyt Türk Portföy's Arındırma İşlemleri page uses the same wording about the TKBB standard and offers the same tool. The halal stocks hub and the investing hub carry the wider context.

Step one: find the company's non-compliant income share

The ratio you need is the share of a company's total income that came from non-compliant sources in the period your dividend relates to. The primary source is the company's own financial statements on KAP, the Public Disclosure Platform: the income statement shows interest income and other financial income separately from revenue, and the notes break down other income. Divide the non-compliant income by total income for the period to get the ratio. Most retail investors will not do this line by line, and in Turkey they do not need to, because the fund managers do it for the companies in their universe and expose the result through their calculators.

Both calculators work the same way. You enter the date you bought, the date you sold or the latest date if you still hold, the fund code or share ticker, and the number of fund units or shares, up to ten lines at a time, and press Hesapla for the total purification amount. The managers apply the ratio they have computed for each company, pro-rated to your holding period, so the output is already a lira figure. Kuveyt Türk Portföy adds that the module is for information and that it accepts no liability for differences, which is a reminder to keep your own records. Our comparison of KT, Albaraka and Ziraat Portföy notes that Ziraat Portföy's site carried no purification page when we checked on 22 September 2026.

Step two: apply the ratio to what you actually received

For a direct shareholding, multiply the ratio by the gross dividend you received from that company. The arithmetic below uses illustrative numbers, not any company's real figures. Suppose a company's statements show total income of 1,000 million TL for the year, of which 30 million TL is interest on its cash balances. The ratio is 30 divided by 1,000, or 3 percent. If you received a gross dividend of 4,000 TL from that company, the purification amount is 3 percent of 4,000 TL, which is 120 TL. You keep 3,880 TL and give 120 TL away. If you hold through a fund, the fund manager's calculator does the same for every holding in the fund and gives you one number per fund per holding period.

Two points of method are debated and worth knowing. Some scholars purify only the dividend, on the view that the impure income reaches you only when paid out; others also purify a share of the capital gain on sale, on the view that retained impure earnings raise the share price. The TKBB-based calculators work from your entry and exit dates and your unit count, which means they are built to produce a figure whether or not a dividend was paid in your holding period. If you want the stricter approach, use the calculator output; if you follow the dividend-only view, apply the ratio to cash dividends alone. Either way, write down which method you used and keep to it.

Step three: interest already credited to a conventional account

Interest is different from a dividend because none of it is yours to keep. The Diyanet's ruling on time deposits says Muslims should not knowingly place money in interest-bearing accounts, that the return is interest and haram whether above or below inflation, and that where such a return has nonetheless been received, the person may not use it for themselves or their dependants and must give it to those in need without expecting reward. The ratio is therefore 100 percent of the interest credited, and the principal is untouched. The same applies to interest on a conventional brokerage cash balance, to the interest portion of a conventional fund's distribution, and to late-payment interest someone pays you.

The Diyanet's 11 December 2024 ruling on income from religiously illegitimate sources gives the order of recipients. If the rightful owners are known, return the money to them, or to their heirs if they have died. If the gain came from violating a public right, return it to the public. If the owners cannot be reached, use the money for the public good on behalf of its true owners or give it to the poor. The ruling adds that a person must stop earning in that way and repent, and that spending such income on mosques and masjids is not permissible. Our guide to moving your money out of a conventional bank covers how to close the account that generated it.

Who may receive purification money, and why it is not zakat

Purification money goes to the poor and needy or to public benefit, without the giver seeking reward, because the giver is not donating their own property; they are disposing of money that was never theirs. That is why it cannot be counted as zakat, which must be paid from wealth you own, and why it is not sadaqa in the sense of a voluntary charity for reward. Choose recipients and channels that reach the needy directly or fund public benefit, and avoid earmarking it for mosque construction or maintenance, which the Diyanet excludes. In Turkey the practical channels are the large relief foundations: Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı and İHH İnsani Yardım Vakfı both run programmes for the poor, and both accept earmarked gifts; tell them the money is for the needy rather than for any religious building, and do not request a tax receipt in the expectation of personal benefit.

Keep the purification separate from your zakat in your records and in your giving. Zakat on shares and funds is calculated on your clean holdings at your zakat date; our method for zakat on stocks, funds and BES covers it. Purification is calculated on the income you received during the year, and it reduces the dividend income you count as yours, so compute purification first, then zakat on what remains. Do not net one against the other, and do not use purification money to pay zakat.

The annual checklist and a record template

• January: pull the full-year dividend statements from your broker and from each fund manager, and the interest lines from any conventional account you still held during the year.
• February to March: as companies publish year-end financials on KAP, compute or look up the non-compliant income ratio for each direct holding; for funds, run the manager's purification calculator with your exact entry and exit dates and unit counts.
• April: total the purification amount in lira, decide on dividend-only or dividend-plus-gain method, and record the choice.
• Within the month after totalling: transfer the amount to your chosen relief foundation, earmarked for the needy, and save the receipt as proof of disposal, not as a donation for reward.
• Zakat date: compute zakat on your clean holdings after purification, using your own anniversary rather than the tax year.
• Ongoing: when you sell a holding, run the calculator for that position on the day, so you are not reconstructing dates a year later.

A one-line record per holding is enough: ticker or fund code, entry date, exit or year-end date, units, gross dividend or distribution received, ratio or calculator output, purification amount, date given, recipient. Keep the KAP statement or the calculator screenshot that supports the ratio. If a fund manager changes the ratio later, as they sometimes do when audited accounts replace preliminary ones, adjust the following year rather than reopening a payment you have already made.

Our view: do it once a year, from the calculators, and give it quietly

If you hold katılım funds from Kuveyt Türk Portföy or Albaraka Portföy, the whole job is one session with the manager's calculator and one bank transfer; do it each spring once year-end accounts are in, and treat the manager's figure as your default. If you hold BIST shares directly, use the same calculators where your tickers appear, and go to KAP for the ones that do not; our Kuveyt Türk Yatırım profile explains how that brokerage screens for you. If you hold Ziraat Portföy katılım funds, ask the manager in writing for the fund's purification figure, since no public page carried it when we checked.

If you still have a conventional account that paid interest, give away every lira of it under the Diyanet's rule, close or empty the account, and do not let the exercise become a reason to keep the account open another year. Purification is not a licence to hold what you should not; it is the clean-up for the income the screen could not keep out. Done annually and recorded, it takes an hour. Facts checked against kuveytturkportfoy.com.tr, albarakaportfoy.com.tr, ziraatportfoy.com.tr, tkbb.org.tr, kurul.diyanet.gov.tr on 22 September 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Arındırma nasıl yapılır?

Find the share of the company's income that came from non-compliant sources, multiply it by the gross dividend you received, and give that amount to the needy or to public benefit without expecting reward. For katılım funds, Kuveyt Türk Portföy and Albaraka Portföy publish calculators based on the TKBB standard: enter your entry and exit dates, the fund code or ticker and your unit count, and the tool returns the lira amount.

What do I do with interest already paid into my bank account?

Give all of it away. The Diyanet's ruling on time deposits says interest received may not be used for yourself or your dependants and must be given to those in need without expecting reward; its December 2024 ruling adds that illegitimate income may be used for public benefit on behalf of its true owners or given to the poor, but not spent on mosques. Keep the principal, dispose of the interest, and close the account.

Is purification money zakat or sadaqa?

Neither. Zakat is paid from wealth you own, and sadaqa is a voluntary gift for reward; purification is the disposal of money that was never yours, given without seeking reward. Record it separately, do not deduct it from your zakat, and compute zakat on your holdings after purification has been set aside.

Where do KT Portföy and Albaraka Portföy publish purification figures?

On dedicated calculator pages. Albaraka Portföy's Arındırma Hesaplama Tablosu and Kuveyt Türk Portföy's Arındırma İşlemleri page both state that the TKBB Danışma Kurulu's share issuance and trading standard sets the principles, and both let you enter up to ten positions by date and unit count to get a total. Ziraat Portföy's site carried no equivalent page on 22 September 2026, so ask the manager directly.

Do I have to purify capital gains as well as dividends?

Scholars differ. One view purifies only dividends, since impure income reaches you only when paid out; another also purifies a share of the gain on sale, since retained impure earnings lift the share price. The Turkish fund managers' calculators work from your entry and exit dates and units, so they produce a figure either way. Pick one method, record it, and apply it consistently.

Can I give purification money to a mosque?

No. The Diyanet's 11 December 2024 ruling on income from religiously illegitimate sources states that spending such income on mosques and masjids is not permissible. Direct it to the poor and needy or to public benefit on behalf of its true owners, for example through the relief programmes of Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı or İHH, and say when giving that it is not for any religious building.