HLAL is the other halal ETF. If you're a Muslim investor in the US, you've probably heard of SPUS first, but HLAL is the fund that's been sitting quietly in second place, doing its job, and probably deserves a closer look than it gets.

Launched in 2019 by Wahed Invest, HLAL tracks the FTSE USA Shariah Index. Different index provider, slightly different methodology, very similar outcome. Let's actually compare the two and figure out when you'd want one over the other.

The FTSE USA Shariah Index

HLAL tracks the FTSE USA Shariah Index, which is maintained by FTSE Russell and advised by Yasaar Ltd, a global Shariah consultancy. The index starts with the FTSE USA Index (basically the US large and mid-cap universe, around 550 names) and applies both business activity screens and financial ratio screens.

Business screens exclude the usual: conventional financial services, alcohol, tobacco, pork, weapons, adult entertainment, gambling, and interest-based entertainment.

Financial ratio screens use a slightly different formula than S&P DJI's methodology. FTSE uses total assets as the denominator for debt ratios instead of market cap. That sounds like a boring technical detail, but it actually makes HLAL more stable when markets get volatile. Market cap can swing 30 percent in a bad week. Total assets don't. So FTSE's methodology kicks fewer companies out and in during market turbulence.

Net result: HLAL typically holds around 180 to 210 names, very close to SPUS's count, but the composition is subtly different quarter to quarter.

Expense Ratio: 0.50 Percent

HLAL charges 0.50 percent per year, almost identical to SPUS at 0.49 percent. One basis point difference. Essentially a rounding error over any reasonable holding period.

When HLAL launched, it was 0.50 percent. Wahed hasn't cut the expense ratio since launch, while SP Funds has trimmed SPUS's twice. That's a small but real point against HLAL. When you see your competitor cutting fees as AUM grows, you should match or beat them. Wahed hasn't.

AUM Comparison

HLAL sits around 700 to 800 million dollars in assets as of early 2026. That's roughly half of SPUS's AUM. Still plenty big for a halal ETF, and the liquidity is fine for retail investors. Bid-ask spreads are usually 2 to 4 cents, marginally wider than SPUS but nothing that matters unless you're trading huge blocks.

One thing worth noting: HLAL's AUM growth slowed in 2024 and 2025 compared to SPUS. Wahed's brand recognition is strongest among Muslim retail investors who use the Wahed Invest robo-advisor, but for self-directed investors on Schwab or Fidelity, SPUS tends to show up first in screeners and grabs more flows.

What's Inside HLAL

Top holdings overlap heavily with SPUS. You're looking at Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet, Meta, Tesla, Eli Lilly, Broadcom, Johnson & Johnson, and Visa in the top ten most quarters. But the weights are different.

HLAL tends to have slightly smaller positions in the top names because FTSE caps individual holdings at 10 percent of the index. S&P DJI doesn't apply the same hard cap, which means SPUS can let Apple drift higher before trimming. Practically, HLAL's top holding might be 9.2 percent while SPUS's is 9.8 percent. Small but meaningful if you care about single-stock risk.

Sector breakdown is similar: roughly 42 to 48 percent technology, 18 to 22 percent healthcare, 10 to 14 percent consumer discretionary, with smaller slices in industrials, communication services, and energy.

Coverage Differences

This is where it gets interesting. Because FTSE and S&P DJI use different base universes and slightly different financial screens, the funds don't hold identical portfolios.

HLAL includes some mid-cap names that SPUS doesn't, because FTSE USA covers more of the market than the S&P 500. You'll typically see 15 to 25 companies in HLAL that aren't in SPUS. These are usually US mid-caps that passed screening but are below the S&P 500 threshold.

Conversely, SPUS sometimes holds large-caps that HLAL has excluded because FTSE's stricter debt-to-total-assets ratio kicked them out. Tesla is a good example of a name that has drifted in and out of various Shariah indexes over the years because its debt profile keeps changing.

For most investors, these differences don't matter. For someone building a careful portfolio who wants maximum diversification within the halal universe, holding both funds actually reduces single-name concentration and gives you slightly broader exposure.

Performance Estimates Through Early 2026

Let me walk through rough historical numbers.

One-year total return: approximately 23 to 27 percent, very close to SPUS. Both funds captured the AI rally.

Three-year annualized: approximately 14 to 16 percent. Basically a tie with SPUS over this period.

Five-year annualized: approximately 13 to 14 percent, marginally behind SPUS by roughly 30 to 60 basis points, which is consistent with HLAL's slightly lower tech concentration and the cap on top holdings.

Since inception (July 2019): approximately 13 to 14 percent annualized.

The key takeaway: over most multi-year periods, HLAL and SPUS have been within 100 basis points of each other. If you held them side by side, you'd barely notice the difference.

Dividend Yield and Purification

HLAL's distribution yield is approximately 0.9 to 1.2 percent, slightly higher than SPUS's, which makes sense because HLAL's mid-cap inclusion brings in a few more dividend-paying names.

Wahed publishes annual purification guidance the same way SP Funds does. The purification amount is typically tiny, under 0.1 percent of your distribution. You take that small slice and give it to charity without tax benefit to yourself.

Liquidity and Trading

If you care about getting tight fills, SPUS has a slight edge. HLAL's average daily volume is maybe 60 to 70 percent of SPUS's, and the bid-ask spread is a smidge wider. For anyone putting in less than 50,000 dollars at a time, this difference is invisible. For advisors rebalancing 10-million-dollar model portfolios, it matters.

The Wahed Ecosystem Angle

One reason some investors pick HLAL is because they're already using Wahed Invest as their robo-advisor. Wahed uses HLAL in its own model portfolios (alongside other Wahed-branded ETFs like UMMA for international and SUKX for sukuk). If you're a Wahed customer and you want to bring some investments in-house to a brokerage account, buying HLAL gives you continuity with what Wahed is already holding for you.

SP Funds has a similar ecosystem with SPUS plus SPRE (real estate), SPTE (tech), and SPSK (sukuk). Neither ecosystem is obviously better; it's mostly a question of which issuer you trust more.

Where HLAL Actually Beats SPUS

A few legitimate wins for HLAL. First, the mid-cap inclusion gives you marginally better diversification. Second, the 10 percent cap on top holdings reduces concentration risk if you're worried about Apple or Microsoft dominating a single-stock correction. Third, HLAL's debt screen using total assets is arguably a more stable way to evaluate companies over time.

Where SPUS beats HLAL: slightly more AUM, tighter spreads, a track record of trimming fees, and marginally better performance in tech-led rallies.

The Honest Recommendation

If you're picking one halal US equity ETF and you don't want to overthink it, SPUS is the default winner on liquidity and brand momentum. If you want slightly better diversification and you don't mind paying one extra basis point, HLAL is perfectly fine and arguably a smarter long-term hold.

If you have a larger portfolio (say 100,000 dollars or more allocated to halal US equity), splitting between the two is defensible. You get broader name coverage, you hedge against methodology quirks in either index, and you get to complain about exactly half as many things per quarterly rebalance.

Bottom Line

HLAL is not the loud fund in the halal ETF space. It's the one that's been steadily building a track record, running a tight methodology, and serving as the backbone of the Wahed ecosystem. It's not as flashy as SPUS but it's not trying to be.

If someone hands you 10,000 dollars tomorrow and tells you to go halal on US equity, you'd be fine picking either fund and moving on with your life. The difference is small enough that the decision doesn't deserve more than 20 minutes of your attention.

Wahed FTSE USA Shariah ETF (HLAL): Cost vs Coverage Analysis