SPUS vs HLAL 2026: Which Halal S&P Fund Wins on Fee + Screening (2026)

The verdict up front

If you want one halal fund to anchor a US portfolio in 2026, choose SPUS. It is cheaper (0.45% vs 0.50%), more than twice the size (~$2.07 billion vs ~$900 million in assets), and it tracks the S&P 500 Shariah index — the benchmark most US investors already think in. HLAL is a fine fund and a legitimate alternative, but it has to win you over on something other than fee or scale, and for most people it doesn’t.

That said, “SPUS wins” is not the whole story. Both funds are screened large-cap US equity ETFs, which means they are far more similar than they are different — and the real risk in 2026 isn’t picking the “wrong” one, it’s not understanding how concentrated both have become. We’ll get to that.

SPUS vs HLAL: the head-to-head

Here are the issuer-verified numbers as of mid-2026. Fund holdings change quarterly, so re-check the current figures on each issuer’s page before you buy.

On the two numbers most people screen for — fee and size — SPUS wins both. On a $100,000 position, the 0.05% fee difference is $50 per year; on a $25,000 Roth, it’s about $12. Not nothing over a 30-year horizon, but not a reason to lose sleep either.

Do both funds actually pass the halal screen?

Yes — both apply the same two-stage logic that AAOIFI Shari’ah Standard 21 sets out, even though they license different index providers.

Stage 1 – business activity. Both exclude companies that derive more than ~5% of revenue from conventional/interest-based finance and insurance, alcohol, tobacco, gambling, pork, adult entertainment, and weapons. This is why neither fund holds JPMorgan, Bank of America, or Berkshire Hathaway — the same names that disqualify VOO and VTI from being halal.

Stage 2 – financial ratios. Surviving companies must also clear the balance-sheet tests: interest-bearing debt under roughly 30% (AAOIFI) to 33% (S&P/FTSE) of market cap, cash plus interest-bearing securities under the same threshold, and impermissible (interest) income under 5% of total revenue. SPUS uses the S&P Dow Jones Islamic ratio set; HLAL uses FTSE’s, screened by the Yasaar Ltd Shariah board.

The practical upshot: there is no “more halal” fund here. Both are screened, both are reviewed by a Shariah board, and both purify the residual interest income. The methodologies differ at the margin (S&P divides debt by market cap; some FTSE-style screens historically used total assets), but for a passive equity ETF the difference rarely changes the verdict on a given stock.

What most people miss: both funds are tech bets now

Here is the part the fee comparison hides. When you screen the S&P 500 for Shariah compliance, you delete the entire financial sector — banks, insurers, payment networks like Visa and Mastercard with debt-ratio fails. That money doesn’t vanish; it gets redistributed into the names that survive. And the names that survive are dominated by mega-cap technology.

As of mid-2026, SPUS’s top holdings look like this:

That’s roughly 42% of the fund in five tech names, and a single stock — NVIDIA — at over 13%. HLAL is built the same way: its top 10 holdings run near 54% of the fund, led by Apple (~13.5%), Microsoft (~9.1%), and Alphabet (~6.3%). Both funds are far more concentrated and far more tech-tilted than the unscreened S&P 500.

This is the real decision, and it’s the same for SPUS and HLAL: when you buy a screened US large-cap fund, you are accepting a concentrated bet on mega-cap technology as the price of compliance. That has been a tailwind through the AI run-up. It is also a single-sector risk most investors don’t notice because the word on the label is “S&P 500” or “USA,” not “tech.”

Which one wins for whom

• You want the cheapest, biggest, most liquid halal S&P core → SPUS. Lower fee, more than double the assets, tighter bid-ask spreads, and it maps directly onto the S&P 500 most people benchmark against.
• You want slightly broader large-and-mid-cap exposure → HLAL. The FTSE USA Shariah index reaches a bit further down the cap spectrum (~211 names vs ~200), so it’s marginally less S&P-500-pure. The cost is 0.05% more in fees.
• You already hold one and want diversification → don’t add the other. The overlap is high — same mega-cap tech leadership, same screened large-cap universe. Pair your core with SPSK (sukuk) or SPRE (halal REITs) instead.
• You want active management and a longer track record → neither; look at Amana (AMAGX). Amana’s funds have run since 1986, but you pay for it — AMAGX charges 0.86% versus SPUS’s 0.45%.

How to use either fund inside a tax-advantaged account

Both funds work in any account — taxable brokerage, Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, or a 401(k) with a self-directed brokerage window. The account is just a tax wrapper; the halal question is entirely about what sits inside it.

1. Roth IRA: the cleanest home for a growth-tilted, tech-heavy fund. Gains and qualified withdrawals are tax-free, so the concentration risk you’re taking on pays off without a future tax drag. 2026 contribution limit is $7,000 ($8,000 if 50+).
2. 401(k): most plans won’t list SPUS or HLAL. If yours offers a self-directed brokerage window (a “brokerage link”), you can buy either there. If not, an IRA is the path to halal funds, and the default target-date funds in your plan are not compliant — they hold bonds.
3. Taxable brokerage: both are ETFs, so they’re tax-efficient (low turnover, in-kind redemptions). You’ll still owe purification on the small interest sliver and tax on any dividends and realized gains.

The decision lever

Pick on two questions, in this order. First: do you want the S&P 500 Shariah benchmark specifically, or are you fine with a slightly broader FTSE USA Shariah universe? If you want the S&P core — which is what most US Muslim investors mean when they say “halal index fund” — SPUS wins on fee and scale, full stop. Second, and more important than the SPUS-vs-HLAL choice itself: are you comfortable that whichever you pick is a roughly 40%-in-five-tech-names bet? If that concentration makes you uneasy, the fix isn’t switching between these two near-twins — it’s adding a sukuk or REIT sleeve (SPSK, SPRE) so your halal portfolio isn’t one AI selloff away from a deep drawdown.

Key takeaways

• SPUS wins for most investors: 0.45% fee vs HLAL’s 0.50%, ~$2.07B vs ~$900M in assets, and it tracks the S&P 500 Shariah index.
• The 0.05% fee gap is $50/year on $100,000 — real but minor. Index choice and concentration matter more.
• Both pass an AAOIFI Standard 21 style screen, both exclude conventional finance, and both require quarterly purification. Neither is “more halal.”
• Both are heavily tech-concentrated: SPUS is ~42% in its top five (NVIDIA alone ~13.3%); HLAL’s top 10 is ~54%. Screening out finance forces this tilt.
• Owning both adds little diversification. Pair your core with SPSK (sukuk) or SPRE (REITs) instead.

This applies the AAOIFI Shari’ah Standard 21 screen to publicly available holdings data as of June 2026. Screening is a methodology, not a religious ruling — fund holdings change quarterly, scholars differ on gray areas, and this is not a fatwa. Verify the current screen via Musaffa or Zoya and consult a qualified scholar for your situation.