The Iman Fund (ticker IMANX) is halal. Allied Asset Advisors launched it on June 30, 2000, Dr. Bassam Osman has been its sole portfolio manager since that day, and the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) controls the advisor. It is a no-load, actively managed growth fund holding more than 100 companies, with a $250 minimum for a regular account and $100 for an IRA. The cost is the catch: published total annual operating expenses are 1.29%, against 0.86% for Amana Growth Investor shares and 0.45% for the SPUS ETF. Over the ten years to September 30, 2026 it returned 13.56% a year, ahead of the Dow Jones Islamic Market World Index but behind the S&P 500. This review sets out what you get for the fee and who should pay it; the investing hub covers the wider menu.
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What the Iman Fund is and who runs it
Allied Asset Advisors is an SEC-registered investment advisor based in Hometown, Illinois, outside Chicago. Its Our Story page traces the fund's origin to NAIT, which launched the first halal mutual fund in America in 1984, and to Dr. Osman, a neurologist who co-founded that effort and then set up Allied Asset Advisors and the Iman Fund in 2000. The Management of the Fund page states that Dr. Osman is solely responsible for day-to-day investment management, has been chairman of the advisor since 2000, and has managed the fund since inception. The homepage lists Sheikh Muzammil Siddiqi as Principal Shariah Advisor, and the FAQ describes formal quarterly portfolio reviews with the guidance of the Shari'ah Board.
The NAIT relationship is unusual and worth understanding. NAIT is the waqf organisation that holds title to hundreds of American mosques and Islamic centres. It is the controlling entity of Allied Asset Advisors and, as of August 31, 2021, owned 44.63% of the fund's outstanding shares, a figure the advisor discloses because NAIT's votes are likely to decide any shareholder question. For an investor that means a community institution, not a fund company, sits behind the product, and that mosques and endowments are large fellow shareholders. It also means a single portfolio manager in his fifth decade of investing, with no named successor on the site, which is a concentration risk the Allied Asset Advisors provider page notes.
Fees, minimums and share class
There is one share class. The Fees and Expenses page lists no sales load on purchases, no deferred load, no redemption fee, no exchange fee and no account fee. The annual operating expense table shows a 1.00% management fee, no 12b-1 distribution fee, 0.29% other expenses and 1.29% total, with a worked example of $131 in costs on a $10,000 investment over one year and $1,556 over ten. The performance page repeats 1.29% as total annual fund operating expenses. The Portfolio Characteristics page, however, shows a gross expense ratio of 1.01%, and the expense table on the fees page is dated September 30, 2021. Those figures do not agree, so read the current prospectus before investing and expect the real number to sit somewhere between them.
Minimums are low: $250 to open a regular account and $100 for an IRA, with no mention of a minimum for subsequent purchases. The Why Iman Fund page says shares can be bought directly from the advisor or through broker partners including Charles Schwab, Vanguard, E-Trade and Fidelity, and the FAQ warns that a broker may charge its own transaction fee even though the fund itself is no-load. Whether IMANX is on a broker's no-transaction-fee list is not stated on investaaa.com; check the fund's page at your broker before buying through it, or buy direct to be sure.
| Fund | Ticker | Type | Expense ratio | Minimum | Manager |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iman Fund | IMANX | Active mutual fund, global growth | 1.29% total (1.01% gross shown elsewhere) | $250, $100 IRA | Allied Asset Advisors, since 2000 |
| Amana Growth Investor | AMAGX | Active mutual fund, US growth | 0.86% | $100, none in IRAs | Saturna Capital |
| Amana Growth Institutional | AMIGX | Active mutual fund, US growth | 0.61% | $100,000 | Saturna Capital |
| SP Funds S&P 500 Sharia | SPUS | Index ETF, US large cap | 0.45% | One share | SP Funds |
How the fund screens and what it holds
The screening description on investaaa.com follows the standard two-stage method. Business screens exclude alcohol, pork, gambling, adult entertainment, weapons and defence, banking and financial services, and companies whose primary income is interest. Financial screens then remove companies that earn substantial income from interest or carry considerable debt, measured against total assets, net income or other ratios; the site does not publish the exact thresholds, which Zoya, Musaffa and the index providers do. The philosophy page adds two points a halal investor should like: the fund holds no fixed-income securities, and uninvested cash is kept in non-interest-bearing deposits. Few US funds state the second point so plainly.
The portfolio as of September 30, 2026 is large-cap and technology heavy. The top ten holdings are Apple, Alphabet (two share classes), Microsoft, Taiwan Semiconductor, NVIDIA, Meta Platforms, ExxonMobil, Eli Lilly and ASML, and the top sectors are semiconductors, communications equipment, pharmaceuticals and software. Two of those names are foreign, which fits the fund's blended benchmark of 50% Dow Jones Islamic Market US and 50% Dow Jones Islamic Market World. The advisor's own disclosure gives the portfolio turnover for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2022 as 114.5%, which is high for a buy-and-hold philosophy and matters for tax in a non-retirement account; the current figure is in the annual report.
Purification is left to the shareholder. The Purification page says the fund follows strict guidelines but strongly advises investors to purify investment income as an extra layer of compliance, and states that purified amounts may not be given as zakat. The advisor does not publish a per-share purification figure on the pages we reviewed, unlike Saturna, which reports one for the Amana funds. Ask the fund directly for the figure or estimate it with a screener.
Performance against AMAGX and SPUS
The fairest comparison uses the same date and the same source type: issuer pages as of September 30, 2026. The Iman Fund's performance page and Saturna's Amana Growth page both publish standardised returns to that date. SP Funds' site was not reachable when we checked, so SPUS is not in the table; its index, the S&P 500 Shariah, behaves like the US large-cap Shariah benchmark shown. Returns are annualised for periods over one year and are net of fees.
| To Sept 30, 2026 | 1 year | 3 years | 5 years | 10 years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iman Fund (IMANX) | 24.56% | 23.43% | 11.55% | 13.56% |
| Amana Growth Investor (AMAGX) | 18.49% | 21.33% | 12.72% | 17.17% |
| Dow Jones Islamic Market US TR | 19.11% | 23.72% | 13.71% | 16.31% |
| Dow Jones Islamic Market World TR | 20.55% | 22.19% | 11.35% | 13.85% |
| S&P 500 TR | 15.74% | 22.89% | 13.79% | 15.33% |
Read across the rows and the pattern is clear. Over one and three years the Iman Fund has done well, beating Amana Growth and the US Islamic index over one year and matching the US index over three. Over ten years it trails Amana Growth by about 3.6 percentage points a year and the US Islamic index by about 2.75 points, which compounds to a large gap on a $10,000 investment. The advisor's own homepage illustration, $10,000 growing to $38,048 between May 31, 2016 and May 31, 2026, is a good decade in absolute terms; the question a buyer has to answer is whether paying 1.29% for active selection is likely to beat a 0.45% index fund over the next decade, when it did not over the last. Past returns do not predict future ones, and the fund's NAV of $23.34 on September 25, 2026 was up 23.10% for the year to date.
How to buy and hold it
Buying direct is the lowest-friction route: the advisor offers regular, joint, custodial, trust and business accounts and traditional, Roth, SEP and SIMPLE IRAs plus Coverdell education accounts, all with the fund as the only investment. Withdrawals from the open-end fund typically take one to two business days according to the FAQ. Buying through Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard or E-Trade lets you hold IMANX beside SPUS, SPSK or HLAL in one account, but check the broker's transaction fee first; a $50 fee on a $250 purchase is a 20% hurdle. Dollar-cost averaging small monthly amounts is where a no-load mutual fund beats an ETF, because there is no bid-ask spread and fractional shares are automatic.
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- Decide whether the fund will sit in a taxable account or an IRA; the high turnover argues for an IRA.
- Compare the broker's transaction fee against buying direct from Allied Asset Advisors.
- Request the current prospectus and confirm the expense ratio, since the site shows both 1.29% and 1.01%.
- Set up an automatic monthly purchase at or above the $100 IRA minimum.
- Ask the advisor for a purification ratio each year, or estimate one with Zoya or Musaffa, and give that amount away.
- Pay zakat on the market value each year under whichever retirement account view you follow.
How it compares with Amana and with ETFs
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Against Amana Growth, the Iman Fund offers a more global portfolio, a community owner and a lower regular-account minimum, and gives up about 0.43 percentage points a year in fees and a weaker ten-year record. Amana's Investor shares have no minimum in tax-sheltered accounts and Saturna publishes purification data; see our Amana Growth Fund review for the detail. Against SPUS and HLAL, the Iman Fund offers active management and a fund you can buy in $100 increments direct, and gives up roughly 0.84 percentage points a year in cost plus the certainty of index tracking. Our mutual fund versus ETF comparison covers the structural differences, and our guide to whether mutual funds are halal addresses the wrapper itself.
The honest case for the Iman Fund is not performance or cost. It is that the fund's fees support a community institution, that the manager holds no fixed income and parks cash without interest, and that mosques and endowments who want a single halal fund with a scholar on call have used it for a quarter century. Those are real reasons, and for some readers they outweigh 84 basis points.
Verdict: halal, yes; the right choice for you depends on cost
On the halal question the verdict is clear: the Iman Fund is Shariah-screened, holds no interest-bearing securities, keeps cash out of interest, and operates under a named Shariah advisor with quarterly board review. On the cost question, a 30-year-old building a Roth IRA with monthly contributions should hold SPUS or HLAL as the core and treat the Iman Fund as a satellite only if the community ownership matters to them. A mosque treasurer or family trust that wants a long-standing fund with an advisor who will take their call, and that values NAIT's stewardship, has a reasonable case for IMANX despite the fee. A retiree should look first at the Amana Income and Participation funds for yield. Whoever buys, confirm the expense ratio in the current prospectus, because the fund's own pages show two different figures. Facts checked against investaaa.com, saturna.com on September 25, 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Is IMANX halal?
Yes. The Iman Fund applies business and financial screens that exclude alcohol, pork, gambling, adult entertainment, weapons, banking and heavily indebted companies, holds no fixed-income securities, keeps uninvested cash in non-interest-bearing deposits, and reviews the portfolio quarterly with its Shari'ah Board under Principal Shariah Advisor Sheikh Muzammil Siddiqi. Shareholders are advised to purify a small portion of income themselves.
What is the Iman Fund expense ratio?
The fund's Fees and Expenses page lists a 1.00% management fee, 0.29% other expenses and 1.29% total annual operating expenses, and its performance page repeats 1.29%. Its Portfolio Characteristics page shows a gross expense ratio of 1.01%. Because the pages disagree and the expense table is dated 2021, confirm the figure in the current prospectus before investing.
What is the minimum investment in the Iman Fund?
The minimum is $250 to open a regular account and $100 to open an IRA, according to the Portfolio Characteristics page. The fund is no-load with no redemption or exchange fees. If you buy through a broker such as Fidelity or Schwab rather than direct, the broker may charge its own transaction fee, which the fund's FAQ warns about.
Who owns Allied Asset Advisors?
The North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), the waqf that holds title to many American mosques, is the controlling entity of Allied Asset Advisors. The advisor disclosed that NAIT owned 44.63% of the Iman Fund's shares as of August 31, 2021 and intends to vote them. Dr. Bassam Osman, a NAIT trustee, has been chairman of the advisor since 2000 and portfolio manager since the fund's launch.
Iman Fund or Amana Growth Fund?
Amana Growth (AMAGX) costs 0.86% against the Iman Fund's published 1.29%, returned 17.17% a year over the ten years to September 30, 2026 against 13.56%, and publishes purification data. The Iman Fund returned more over one year, holds a more global portfolio and is owned by a community institution. On cost and long-term record Amana wins; on mission the Iman Fund has a case.
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Can I hold the Iman Fund in a Roth IRA?
Yes. Allied Asset Advisors offers traditional, Roth, SEP and SIMPLE IRAs directly with a $100 minimum, and the fund is also available through Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard and E-Trade IRAs subject to their transaction fees. An IRA is the better home for it because the fund's reported turnover of 114.5% in fiscal 2022 would generate taxable distributions in a regular account.
