Amana Mutual Funds vs Halal ETFs: Which Halal Investment Grows Wealth Faster?

If you want to invest without touching interest, two names come up almost immediately: Amana mutual funds and halal ETFs such as SPUS and HLAL. Both screen out the same broad kinds of companies, and both have made long-term investors real money. They are built very differently, though, and that shows up in what you pay, how you buy, and how much your result depends on one manager’s judgment.

This isn’t a contest with one correct answer. A fund that suits someone saving through a workplace retirement plan may be the wrong tool for someone starting with $50 in a brokerage app. So this guide puts the real 2026 numbers side by side and shows where each option earns its place.

Figures come from the fund companies’ own pages and run to September 30, 2026 unless noted.

Good News: You Don’t Have to Choose

Nothing stops you from holding both. Plenty of halal investors keep an index ETF as their base and add an Amana fund for its stock-picking. Others hold Amana mutual funds inside a retirement plan and ETFs everywhere else.

The line between the two also blurred this year. In June 2026 Saturna Capital, the firm behind Amana, launched ETF versions of its strategies: Amana Growth ETF (AMGR) at 0.61%, Amana Equity Income ETF (AMEI) at 0.76% and Amana Developing World ETF (AMEM) at 0.91%.

They are only a few months old, so there is no track record yet. They do offer Amana’s stock-picking in an ETF wrapper, at the price of the $100,000-minimum share class.

Amana Mutual Funds vs Halal ETFs at a Glance

How They Compare, Criterion by Criterion

Fees: What Amana Mutual Funds and Halal ETFs Cost

The expense ratio is the yearly cut a fund takes from your balance. SPUS charges 0.45% and HLAL 0.50%. Amana Growth Investor shares charge 0.86%, and Amana Income 0.99%.

A quarter-point of each Amana Investor fee is a 12b-1 fee, a charge for marketing and distribution. The Institutional share classes drop it, which takes Growth down to 0.61%, but they ask for $100,000 up front. Saturna’s fee table lists no sales load or redemption fee on any of them.

Small percentages compound into real money. Put $10,000 into a fund earning 8% a year before costs and leave it for 20 years. At 0.45% you finish with about $42,875. At 0.86% you finish with about $39,722, roughly $3,150 less on a single deposit.

Returns: Which Has Grown Faster?

Over the five years to September 30, 2026, SPUS returned 16.37% a year at net asset value. Amana Growth Investor returned 12.72% and Amana Income 11.45%. On $10,000, that is the difference between about $21,340 and about $18,200.

Stretch the window and the picture changes. Over ten years Amana Growth averaged 17.17% a year, ahead of the 15.46% from the Bloomberg US Large Cap Index that Saturna uses as a yardstick. Neither SPUS nor HLAL existed ten years ago, so there is nothing to set beside it.

So which grows wealth faster? The ETF did recently, and Amana Growth has the longer proof. SPUS tracks an index dominated by the largest technology companies, and those led the market for most of this stretch. A manager choosing 30 stocks will drift from that index, for better in some years and worse in others.

We could not confirm HLAL’s five-year figure on Wahed’s own fund page, so we left it out.

Screening: Who Decides What Counts as Halal?

All of these funds exclude businesses such as alcohol, tobacco, gambling and conventional interest-based banking. The differences are in the financial tests and in who checks the work.

Amana mutual funds remove companies that earn more than 5% of revenue from prohibited sources, carry debt above 33% of market value, or hold receivables above 45% of total assets. Saturna says the funds are reviewed quarterly by Amanie Advisors, an independent Shariah advisory firm.

SPUS follows guidelines from AAOIFI, the main standard-setting body in Islamic finance, and its index only admits companies with debt below 30% of market capitalization. HLAL tracks the FTSE USA Shariah Index, which applies its own rule set.

A stock can therefore pass one screen and fail another. Amana also drops fossil fuel extraction, while SPUS counts ExxonMobil among its ten largest positions. If one scholar’s standard matters to you, read each fund’s Shariah certificate.

Diversification: 30 Stocks or 200?

Amana Growth held 30 stocks at the end of September 2026. SPUS holds roughly 200, and HLAL about the same.

That sounds like a wide gap in safety, and it is narrower than it looks. Amana Growth’s ten largest holdings made up about 59% of the fund. The ten largest in SPUS made up about 58% in early October, with Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft alone near 36%.

Take banks and heavily indebted companies out of the US market and what remains tilts toward technology, whichever wrapper you pick.

Access and Minimums

You buy an ETF like a stock, through any brokerage account, at whatever price it trades during the day. One share of SPUS cost about $61 in early October, and many brokers sell fractions of a share for less.

Amana mutual funds are priced once a day, after the market closes. You can open an account directly with Saturna for $100 and pay no transaction fee, or buy through a brokerage, which may add its own charge. Saturna sets no minimum for tax-sheltered accounts such as IRAs.

Retirement plans are where this matters most. Workplace 401(k) menus are usually built from mutual funds, not ETFs, so Amana can be the only halal option on the list.

Active vs Passive: What Sits Under the Wrapper

The mutual fund or ETF label matters less than what happens inside the fund. Amana’s managers pick stocks. SPUS and HLAL copy an index. AMGR shows the same active approach can come in either wrapper.

The wrapper does matter for tax in an ordinary taxable account. When a mutual fund sells winners, it passes the profit to shareholders as a capital gains distribution, and you owe tax on it even if you never sold a share. Amana Growth paid about $3.14 a share in long-term gains in December 2024, then none in December 2025.

ETFs usually pay out fewer of these because of how their shares are created and redeemed, as the SEC’s guide to ETFs explains. Inside an IRA or 401(k), the difference disappears.

What the Data Says About Stock-Pickers

S&P Dow Jones Indices measures active funds against their benchmarks in its SPIVA scorecard. In 2025, 79% of actively managed US large-cap funds underperformed the S&P 500. It was the fourth-worst year for active managers in the scorecard’s 25-year history.

That is the base rate anyone picking Amana mutual funds over an index ETF is betting against. Amana Growth has been one of the exceptions over the past decade. A strong ten years still does not promise the next ten, and the higher fee is charged in good years and bad.

The Halal Details: Riba, Purification and Zakat

Neither Amana mutual funds nor halal ETFs earn riba, meaning interest, the way a bond fund or savings account does. Saturna states that Amana Growth makes no interest-paying investments, and its spare cash goes into Islamic instruments called murabaha and wakala.

Screening is not perfect, though. A company can pass every test and still earn a sliver of income from interest. Scholars generally advise giving that portion to charity, a practice called purification. Saturna and SP Funds both publish purification calculators.

If you want income more than growth, look at sukuk, the Islamic alternative to bonds. Amana Participation Fund (AMAPX, 0.81%) invests mainly in sukuk, and SP Funds runs a sukuk ETF, SPSK.

Zakat is due on investments too. Saturna has a short explainer on investing and zakat.

Where Amana Mutual Funds Win

• A 40-year history. Amana Income launched in 1986 and Amana Growth in 1994, long enough to cover several market cycles.
• Ten-year results ahead of the market. Amana Growth’s 17.17% a year beat its large-cap yardstick over the decade to September 2026.
• Retirement-plan access. Mutual funds fit 401(k) menus, where ETFs are often missing.
• A low direct minimum. $100 opens an account with Saturna, with no sales load and automatic investing available.
• A person making the call. A manager can skip a stock that looks overpriced. An index cannot.

Where They Fall Short

• Higher fees. Investor shares cost 0.86% to 0.99%, about double the ETFs.
• Taxable payouts. Capital gains can be distributed in years you did not sell.
• Concentration. With 30 stocks, each wrong call counts for more.

Where Halal ETFs Win

• Lower cost. SPUS charges 0.45% and HLAL 0.50%, every year, whatever the market does.
• Stronger recent returns. SPUS returned 16.37% a year over five years, ahead of both Amana funds and the S&P 500.
• Buy anywhere, in any amount. Any brokerage account works, and fractional shares let you start with a few dollars.
• Tax efficiency. ETFs tend to distribute fewer capital gains in taxable accounts.

Where They Fall Short

• Short history. Both launched in 2019, so neither has a ten-year record.
• Top-heavy. Three companies make up more than a third of SPUS.

Which One Is Right for You

• Starting small in a brokerage app. A halal ETF such as SPUS or HLAL is the simplest, cheapest way in.
• Saving through a 401(k). Check the plan menu. If Amana is there, it may be your only halal option, and a good one.
• Investing in a taxable account. The ETF structure usually leaves you a smaller tax bill along the way.
• Convinced by active management. Amana mutual funds have a long record to judge. AMGR gives you the same approach at 0.61% without the $100,000 minimum.
• Still undecided. Split the money between an ETF core and an Amana holding.

5 Halal Investing Providers to Know

• Saturna Capital. Adviser to Amana mutual funds since 1986, and now to three Amana ETFs.
• SP Funds. Issuer of SPUS, which holds about $3.4 billion, plus sukuk and global funds.
• Wahed. Issuer of HLAL and a halal investing platform with managed portfolios.
• Zoya. An app that checks whether stocks, ETFs and mutual funds meet Islamic finance standards.
• Musaffa. A screener that also lets you invest directly in the stocks and ETFs it clears.

We compare the screening apps in our Zoya vs Musaffa vs Islamicly guide.

Key Takeaways

• Amana mutual funds are actively managed and cost 0.86% to 0.99% for most investors. SPUS and HLAL track indexes for 0.45% and 0.50%.
• Over five years SPUS grew faster, at 16.37% a year against 12.72% for Amana Growth. Over ten years Amana Growth returned 17.17% and beat the broad US market.
• Use ETFs for taxable accounts and small starts. Use Amana where a retirement plan offers it, or where you want a manager’s judgment.
• Whichever you hold, purify impure income and include your holdings in zakat.

Keep Reading

For how ETFs and mutual funds differ on trading, costs and tax, see the SEC’s Investor.gov guide to exchange-traded funds. For the evidence on active funds, see the SPIVA U.S. Year-End 2025 scorecard.

More from FinWiser on Investing

• SPUS vs HLAL vs Wahed FTSE USA Shariah ETF: Best Halal ETF Compared 2026
• Stocks vs. Mutual Funds vs. Index Funds vs. Real Estate Compared
• Coast FIRE vs Traditional FIRE vs Halal Retirement Planning
• All Halal & Shariah-compliant investing guides

This article is for education and is not personal financial or religious advice. Fund fees and returns change, so check each fund’s current prospectus before you invest.