✦ Islamic Software Licenses

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Source-available · Ethically restricted · Version 1.0

Software licensing rooted
in the principles of Islam

Four licenses for the most common needs — fourteen in total — that let you share your work while refusing its use for oppression, riba / interest, intoxicants, gambling, and the industries Islam forbids. Justice (ʿadl) as a license term.

Choose a license Read the FAQ

Choose your license

Every variant carries the same ethical use restrictions. They differ in what they let others do with your code.

LicenseRef-ISL-P-1.0

ISL — Permissive

The adoption-friendly choice. Others may use, modify, distribute, and sell your software — the ethical restrictions travel with every copy.

  • Modify & redistribute
  • Commercial use
  • Patent grant included
  • Derivatives may relicense (restrictions still bind)
Read ISL-P

LicenseRef-ISL-C-1.0

ISL — Copyleft

A waqf for your code: what is endowed to the community remains endowed. Derivatives must stay under ISL-C with source disclosed.

  • Modify & redistribute
  • Commercial use
  • Derivatives stay ISL-C, source disclosed
  • Patent grant included
Read ISL-C

LicenseRef-ISL-EULA-1.0

ISL — EULA

A proprietary end-user license template for closed-source products. Fill in your product, keep the same ethical restrictions on every end user.

  • Closed-source distribution
  • Commercial licensing terms
  • No source access
  • No reverse engineering
Read ISL-EULA

LicenseRef-ISL-CW-1.0

ISL — Creative Works

For non-software creative works — text, art, and media. Others may use, adapt, and share your work, including commercially, as long as they credit you.

  • Modify & redistribute
  • Commercial use
  • Attribution required
  • For text, art & media, not software
Read ISL-CW

These four cover the most common needs. See the full list of all fourteen licenses →

Permission ISL-P ISL-C ISL-EULA ISL-CW
View source✦✦✕—
Use commercially✦✦✦*✦
Modify✦✦✕✦
Redistribute✦✦✕✦
Sublicense / sell copies✦✦✕✦
Copyleft scope—Whole program——
Network use triggers source disclosure✕✕——
Linking/combining with other-license code✦✕——
Derivatives / adaptations permitted✦✦—✦
Adaptations must share alike✕✦—✕
Attribution required———✦
Patent grant✦✦✕✕
Ethical use restrictions (§4–§5)✦✦✦✦
OSI open source✕✕✕✕

✦ permitted · ✕ not permitted · — not applicable · * as defined by the licensor in the EULA’s commercial terms.

What every variant refuses

All fourteen licenses prohibit use of the software in service of: shirk and idol worship · riba (interest-based finance) · pornography and sexual exploitation · gambling · intoxicants · the pork industry · unjust weapons use · tobacco · corruption and moral subversion · zina and lewdness · abortion · genocide, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, torture, and regimes engaged in them. The full text of Sections 4 and 5 is identical across the family.