Is Gold ETF Halal? GLD, IAU, GLDM, SGOL & SGLN Checked

Last updated: October 26, 2026

Under AAOIFI Shariah Standard 57, the big US trusts (GLD, IAU, GLDM and SGOL) pass the physical-backing test. Futures-based, leveraged and inverse gold funds fail it.¹ iShares Physical Gold (SGLN/IGLN) does hold allocated gold, but legally it's a debt note. If you're in the UK, the Shariah-certified Invesco and Royal Mint ETCs cost about the same, so we'd pick one of those.

This is the long version of our guide to halal ways to invest in gold and precious metals. Want silver? Read halal silver ETFs. Investing from India? See halal gold ETFs in India.

Is a gold ETF halal or haram?

It depends how the fund is built. The word "gold" in the name tells you nothing. AAOIFI's Standard 57 was written with the World Gold Council and came out in November 2016. It says units of ETFs "whose entire assets are gold" get the same rulings as gold itself.¹ So ask yourself: if I bought this gold directly, would the trade be valid?

Gold is a ribawi item. Shariah treats it like money, so swapping it for cash comes with strict rules to keep riba (interest) out. Standard 57 sets five working conditions:¹²

1. The trade is spot. The gold and the money both change hands in the same session. That can be physical, or constructive, meaning ownership passes to you on paper (clause 3/2/1).
2. No forward or conditional sale. You can't push a gold sale to a later date, or make it depend on something that may or may not happen (clause 3/2/2). That's why futures are out.
3. You really own it. Constructive possession counts when specific bars are allocated to you and you can do what you like with them. It also counts if you hold a certificate for a specified bar, issued on trade date (T+0), that lets you take delivery when you ask (clause 3/4).
4. No selling unallocated gold. In the standard's words, you can't sell "an unspecified ingot (technically known in the market as unallocated ingot) without physical possession" (clause 3/4).
5. Shared ownership is fine. Each partner can own an undivided percentage of a pool of gold (clause 3/5/1). That's exactly what a gold ETF share is.

What about the fee? Standard 57 lets custodians charge for safekeeping and allocation (clause 10/7), so a fund that sells a little gold each year to pay its expense ratio is fine.¹

Malaysia's Securities Commission turned the same ideas into a checklist for Islamic gold and silver ETFs. Units must stand for a pro-rata share of the bars, the bars must be allocated and kept separate, trading must be in cash and spot, and holders must be able to redeem in bullion or cash.³ It's a handy test for every fund below.

Allocated vs unallocated gold

This one difference settles most cases.

• Allocated gold means specific bars are held for you, each one identified by refiner, serial number, fineness and weight. If the custodian goes bust, the bars are still yours.
• Unallocated gold is a general claim on an amount of gold. The bank owes you metal, but no bar has your name on it. In Shariah terms that looks more like a debt than ownership.¹

Standard 57 counts bars that can't be told apart by serial number as unallocated (clause 3/5/4).¹ So when you open a fund prospectus, look for an allocated account, a published bar list, and a limit on how much metal can sit unallocated overnight.

Is GLD halal? Is IAU, GLDM or SGOL halal?

All four pass. Each is a US grantor trust, and a share gives you a fractional, undivided slice of the trust's gold. That matches the shared-ownership rule in clause 3/5/1.

"Passes" means the fund meets Standard 57's physical-backing and allocation conditions, going by its own filings. None of the four has its own Shariah certificate.

GLD (SPDR Gold Shares)

GLD's 10-K says its custody agreements "provide for the full allocation of all gold credited to the Trust's unallocated account at the end of each business day." To make sure allocation always finishes, each custodian gives the trust an overdraft of up to 430 fine ounces. The trust's 2026 filing says 100% of its gold is allocated Good Delivery bars.⁴ The sponsor also publishes the full bar list, with each bar's serial number, refiner and vault.⁴

You might notice that gold passes through unallocated accounts while authorized participants (the big banks that create and redeem shares) do their work. That's a wholesale step between banks. It isn't part of your purchase. By the end of each day, the gold behind your share is allocated. So GLD passes, and the only real knock on it is the 0.40% fee.

IAU (iShares Gold Trust)

IAU's 10-K says that at the end of each business day "there can be in the Trust account maintained by the Custodian no gold in an unallocated form." It also says "the Trust does not lend its gold," and the custodian has no right to lend it either.⁵ Cash kept for expenses earns no interest. IAU passes, at 0.25%.

GLDM (SPDR Gold MiniShares)

GLDM shares "represent units of fractional undivided beneficial interest in and ownership of" the trust.⁶ JPMorgan holds the gold in allocated accounts in London, New York or Zurich, and reports which bars belong to the fund.⁶ At 0.10% a year it's also the cheapest, which is why it's our first pick for a US-listed gold ETF.

SGOL (abrdn Physical Gold Shares)

SGOL keeps allocated London Good Delivery bars with ICBC Standard Bank in London. It posts a bar list every day, and an independent inspector checks the vault twice a year.⁷ It charges 0.17%, and it passes.

Is iShares Physical Gold (SGLN / IGLN) halal?

Lots of UK investors hold this one, and it's built differently. Its key information document says the ETC is "a series of secured debt securities... structured as debt securities and are not units in a collective investment scheme."⁸ The gold sits in a segregated allocated account at JPMorgan in London, and the notes are secured on it.⁸ The fee is 0.12%.

So the gold is there, and it's allocated. What you own, though, is a note from an Irish issuer. Read strictly, that's a claim on the issuer backed by gold, which is a different thing from owning gold.

Oddly enough, the two Shariah-certified UK gold products use the same legal form. Invesco Physical Gold ETC and the Royal Mint ETC are also secured certificates from Irish companies. Each one gets a yearly Shariah audit from the Shariah Supervisory Board of Amanie Advisors.⁹¹⁰ So those boards seem to accept the structure when the collateral is allocated gold and the paperwork meets their rules. iShares just hasn't asked for that review.

Our take: SGLN is probably defensible, but nobody has certified it. Invesco Physical Gold ETC (SGLD) costs 0.12%, the same as SGLN.⁹ If you're in the UK, there's no reason to pick the uncertified one.

Shariah-certified gold ETFs and ETCs

Each of these has a named Shariah adviser and a published certificate or prospectus statement:

The Royal Mint ETC holds post-2019 LBMA Good Delivery bars in the Royal Mint's vault in Llantrisant, Wales. It's the only one here that lets ordinary holders swap their units for physical bars and coins.¹⁰ Wahed's UK portfolios use it for their gold slice.¹² TradePlus puts at least 95% of its assets in allocated, segregated gold in a Singapore vault, and keeps the rest in Islamic money-market instruments.¹¹

In the US, we couldn't find a US-listed gold ETF with its own Shariah certificate as of October 2026. US investors are relying on how GLDM, IAU, SGOL or GLD are built.

Does T+1 settlement break the spot rule?

This is the hardest question on the page, and scholars don't agree on it.

Standard 57 asks for the exchange to happen in the same session, or for a T+0 certificate for a specified bar.¹ US ETF trades settle one business day later (T+1). London trades settle after two (T+2). Read strictly, that's a short delay.

Every certified listed product takes the other view: if you buy on an exchange and pay in full with cash, that's a spot trade, and settlement is just the clearing that follows. Malaysia's Securities Commission requires ETF units to trade "in cash and on spot basis" and accepts normal exchange trading on that basis.³ Invesco's certified ETCs settle T+2 on the LSE and still pass their yearly audit.⁹

That's our reading, and it isn't a fatwa. If you follow the strict view, your cleanest options are physical bullion you hold yourself, or an allocated vault account where bars are assigned to you on the day you trade.

Which gold products are not halal?

These fail Standard 57 no matter who issues them:

• Futures-based gold funds. A futures contract is a delayed sale, which clause 3/2/2 bans.¹
• Leveraged and inverse gold ETFs, like ProShares Ultra Gold (UGL) and UltraShort Gold (GLL). They use derivatives instead of owning bars.
• Options on gold ETFs (calls and puts on GLD, for example), and covered-call gold income products.
• Buying gold ETFs on margin, because that's an interest-bearing loan.
• Short selling a gold ETF. You'd be selling gold you don't own.
• Gold CFDs and spread bets. You never own anything; you're betting on the price.

Gold mining stocks and GDX

Miners are a different asset. Standard 57 allows shares in gold-mining companies, as long as they pass normal stock screening (clause 4/4).¹ You can check names like Newmont (NEM), Agnico Eagle (AEM), Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM) and Franco-Nevada (FNV).

A miner carries business risk, debt and running costs on top of the gold price, so its shares swing more than gold does. And a miners ETF like VanEck's GDX also holds some companies that fail the debt or income ratios. The halal-filtered GDX shows which holdings get removed and how the filtered version compares with the original.

How to buy a gold ETF the halal way

1. Pick a physically backed, allocated product. GLDM, SGOL or IAU in the US. SGLD or RMAU in the UK. TradePlus Shariah Gold Tracker in Malaysia.
2. Pay in full with cash. Use a cash account, not a margin account. Lots of brokers open margin accounts by default, so check which one you have.
3. Skip leverage and derivatives. No options, CFDs or short positions.
4. Keep idle cash out of interest. Hold uninvested cash in a non-interest account. If your broker pays interest on it anyway, give that interest away.
5. Pay zakat on it. See the zakat answer in the FAQ.

Gold holds value, but it won't grow like a business can. It pays no dividend, and the price jumps around. Most people who own gold keep it to a small slice of their portfolio and put the rest in companies. If that rest is sitting in conventional index funds, Amal Invest builds Shariah-screened versions of the funds you already know, so the growth part of your plan is halal too.

FAQ

Is investing in gold halal?

Yes. Gold is a permitted asset, and investing in it is halal when the trade is spot and you own real, allocated metal. Physical bullion, allocated vault accounts and physically backed gold ETFs can all pass. Futures, CFDs, leveraged products and unallocated "paper gold" can't.¹

Are gold ETFs halal?

The physically backed ones can be. GLDM, IAU, SGOL and GLD hold allocated bars and give you a share of ownership, so they meet AAOIFI Standard 57's structure test. Futures-based, leveraged and inverse gold funds don't. If you want a product with its own Shariah certificate, go for Invesco Physical Gold ETC or the Royal Mint ETC in the UK, or TradePlus Shariah Gold Tracker in Malaysia.⁹¹⁰¹¹

Is GLD halal?

On structure, yes. At the end of each business day GLD's gold is 100% allocated Good Delivery bars. It publishes its bar list, and shareholders own an undivided interest in the trust's gold.⁴ That meets Standard 57's physical-backing and allocation conditions. GLD has no Shariah certificate of its own, though, and at 0.40% it costs four times what GLDM does.

Is GLDM halal?

On structure, yes, for the same reasons as GLD. It uses the same trust setup, with JPMorgan holding the gold, and charges 0.10%.⁶ That makes it the cheapest of the four big US gold trusts.

Is iShares Physical Gold halal?

Probably, but it has no certificate. iShares Physical Gold ETC (SGLN/IGLN) is backed by allocated gold in London, but legally it's a secured debt security.⁸ Shariah-certified ETCs use a similar setup, which is why we think it's probably acceptable. Invesco Physical Gold ETC charges the same 0.12% and has a yearly Amanie Advisors certificate, so we'd use that instead.⁹

What is the best halal gold ETF?

In a US account, GLDM: physically backed, allocated, and 0.10% a year. In a UK ISA or SIPP, Invesco Physical Gold ETC (SGLD) at 0.12% with a Shariah certificate, or Royal Mint RMAU if you might want to swap for physical gold one day. In Malaysia, TradePlus Shariah Gold Tracker. In India, see halal gold ETFs in India.

Is there a halal gold ETF in Canada?

We didn't find a Canadian-listed gold fund with a Shariah certificate. Canadian investors can buy GLDM or IAU through most brokers. Another option is Sprott Physical Gold Trust (PHYS). It holds fully allocated, unencumbered Good Delivery bars at the Royal Canadian Mint, and you can redeem units for gold each month above a minimum size.¹³

Do I pay zakat on a gold ETF?

Yes. Treat a gold ETF like gold you own. On your zakat date, add its market value to the rest of your zakatable wealth. If the total is above the nisab (the minimum wealth before zakat is due, set at the value of 85 grams of gold), pay 2.5%. Our guide to zakat on stocks shows how to combine this with your shares. To add up gold, cash and investments against the nisab in one go, use our zakat calculator.

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