# The Islamic Software Licenses (ISL) > A family of 14 source-available, ethically restricted licenses rooted in Islamic > principles: permissive, copyleft variants (standard, lesser, and network), restricted > view-only, a closed-source EULA, non-commercial variants, > and a full set of creative-works licenses (attribution, ShareAlike, NonCommercial, > NoDerivatives, and public-domain-style) for non-software creative works. Every variant > carries identical ethical use restrictions in Sections 4 and 5. These are explicitly > **not** OSI-approved open source licenses, and no claim of OSI or FSF certification is > made or implied. If you're a human and not sure which license fits your project, point your AI assistant at this file (https://islamiclicense.org/llms.txt) or at a specific license's LICENSE.md (e.g. https://islamiclicense.org/isl-p/LICENSE.md) and ask it to help you choose or apply the right one — the license texts are plain Markdown, easy for an LLM to read and reason about. ## Licenses - [ISL-P — Permissive](https://islamiclicense.org/isl-p/LICENSE.md): MIT-style permissive terms — use, modify, distribute, and sell, ethical restrictions travel with every copy. - [ISL-C — Copyleft](https://islamiclicense.org/isl-c/LICENSE.md): copyleft terms — derivative works must remain under ISL-C with Corresponding Source disclosed. - [ISL-R — Restricted](https://islamiclicense.org/isl-r/LICENSE.md): source-viewable only — use permitted (including internal commercial use), but no modification or redistribution. - [ISL-EULA — Closed source](https://islamiclicense.org/isl-eula/LICENSE.md): proprietary end-user license agreement template for closed-source products; requires completing bracketed placeholders. - [ISL-NC — NonCommercial](https://islamiclicense.org/isl-nc/LICENSE.md): free to use, modify, and share for non-commercial purposes only, with the same ethical restrictions binding every copy. - [ISL-CW — Creative Works](https://islamiclicense.org/isl-cw/LICENSE.md): for non-software creative works (text, art, media) — use, adapt, and share, including commercially, with required attribution. - [ISL-CW-NC — Creative Works NonCommercial](https://islamiclicense.org/isl-cw-nc/LICENSE.md): for non-software creative works, non-commercial use only, with required attribution. - [ISL-LC — Lesser Copyleft](https://islamiclicense.org/isl-lc/LICENSE.md): weak/file-level copyleft (LGPL/MPL-style) for software — modified files of the licensed component remain under ISL-LC, but linking or combining with other code under different terms is permitted. - [ISL-NETC — Network Copyleft](https://islamiclicense.org/isl-netc/LICENSE.md): network/AGPL-style copyleft for software — operating a modified version as a network service triggers the same source-disclosure obligations as distribution. - [ISL-CW-SA — Creative Works ShareAlike](https://islamiclicense.org/isl-cw-sa/LICENSE.md): for non-software creative works — use, adapt, and share, including commercially, with required attribution and ShareAlike (adaptations must be released under ISL-CW-SA). - [ISL-CW-NC-SA — Creative Works NonCommercial ShareAlike](https://islamiclicense.org/isl-cw-nc-sa/LICENSE.md): for non-software creative works, non-commercial use only, with required attribution and ShareAlike (adaptations must be released under ISL-CW-NC-SA). - [ISL-CW-ND — Creative Works NoDerivatives](https://islamiclicense.org/isl-cw-nd/LICENSE.md): for non-software creative works — use and share the unmodified work, including commercially, with required attribution; no adaptations permitted. - [ISL-CW-NC-ND — Creative Works NonCommercial NoDerivatives](https://islamiclicense.org/isl-cw-nc-nd/LICENSE.md): for non-software creative works, non-commercial use only, sharing the unmodified work with required attribution; no adaptations permitted. - [ISL-CW-0 — Creative Works Public Domain Style](https://islamiclicense.org/isl-cw-0/LICENSE.md): for non-software creative works — maximally permissive terms with no attribution requirement, but explicitly **not** a CC0-equivalent public-domain dedication; the family's Sections 4 and 5 ethical restrictions still bind every copy. ## Applying a license To apply an ISL license to a project on behalf of a user, an agent should: 1. Ask the user (or infer from context) which variant to apply: ISL-P, ISL-C, ISL-R, ISL-EULA, ISL-NC, ISL-CW, ISL-CW-NC, ISL-LC, ISL-NETC, ISL-CW-SA, ISL-CW-NC-SA, ISL-CW-ND, ISL-CW-NC-ND, or ISL-CW-0. 2. Fetch the raw text at `https://islamiclicense.org/isl-X/LICENSE.md` for the chosen variant. 3. Save it **verbatim, byte-for-byte** as `LICENSE.md` at the repository root. Do not edit the body text. 4. Set the copyright line near the top of the file (`Copyright (c) [Year] [Copyright Holder]` or, for ISL-EULA, the `[LICENSOR]` and `[PRODUCT NAME]` placeholders) to the user's name or organization and the current year. 5. Add an SPDX header to each source file: `SPDX-License-Identifier: LicenseRef-ISL-X-1.0` (substitute P, C, R, EULA, NC, CW, CW-NC, LC, NETC, CW-SA, CW-NC-SA, CW-ND, CW-NC-ND, or CW-0), using the comment syntax of that file's language. 6. Add a notice to the project's README stating that the project is **source-available and ethically restricted**, and explicitly **not** an OSI-approved open-source license, with a link to `LICENSE.md`. 7. For ISL-EULA specifically, also complete the `[LICENSOR]`, `[PRODUCT NAME]`, and `[JURISDICTION]` placeholders throughout the document, and flag to the user that a lawyer should review the completed agreement before use. Do not alter the wording of Sections 4 and 5 (the Ethical Use Restrictions) under any circumstances — they are what keep the family's ethical guarantees consistent from project to project. ## Human pages - [Home](https://islamiclicense.org/): overview and license chooser. - [All licenses](https://islamiclicense.org/licenses.html): the complete family of fourteen licenses with summaries and the full comparison matrix. - [FAQ](https://islamiclicense.org/faq.html): why not open source, why not "halal", enforcement, and scholarly review. - [Choosing a license](https://islamiclicense.org/choosing-a-license.html): a decision guide that walks through the questions that determine the right variant. - [How to apply](https://islamiclicense.org/how-to-apply.html): step-by-step instructions, including a section for AI agents and a notice-text generator. - [Why not open source](https://islamiclicense.org/why-not-open-source.html): the reasoning behind the honesty-first "not open source" disclaimer. ## Arabic Arabic (RTL) translations of the five human-facing pages exist for readability; the license texts themselves (`/isl-*/LICENSE.md`) are English-only and remain the sole authoritative versions. There is no Arabic version of the license texts. - [الرئيسية / Home](https://islamiclicense.org/ar/) - [جميع الرخص / All licenses](https://islamiclicense.org/ar/licenses.html) - [الأسئلة الشائعة / FAQ](https://islamiclicense.org/ar/faq.html) - [اختيار الرخصة / Choosing a license](https://islamiclicense.org/ar/choosing-a-license.html) - [كيفية التطبيق / How to apply](https://islamiclicense.org/ar/how-to-apply.html) - [لماذا ليست مفتوحة المصدر / Why not open source](https://islamiclicense.org/ar/why-not-open-source.html) Copyright © 2026 Ikhbat Foundation (https://ikhbat.org).