Halal Super in Australia: A Checklist for 2026

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Deen · Money · Australia

Hejaz Islamic Super stopped accepting money on 30 September 2026. For its roughly 2,600 members the next date that matters is 12 October 2026, and the closure forces a question most of us have been able to put off for years: where should compulsory super go if you are trying to keep your savings clear of riba?

This piece is the practical companion to Riba: A study in evidence, which covers the fiqh of purification (takhalluṣ), what a Muslim does when a system is compulsory, and the disclosure gaps in Australian Islamic finance. Here I stay with the mechanics. What does "halal" screening actually test? What is on offer right now? What has been officially said to Hejaz members? And how do you move super without quietly losing your insurance?

1. Why super is different

With a bank account or a home loan you can walk away. With super, if you are an employee, you cannot. Your employer must pay the Super Guarantee, which the ATO lists at 12% for both 2025–26 and 2026–27.¹⁷ From 1 July 2026 the rules changed again under what the ATO calls Payday Super: contributions are now calculated on each employee's "qualifying earnings" and paid with each pay run rather than quarterly.¹⁷ The money is preserved until you meet a condition of release, which for most people means retirement after preservation age.

That compulsion matters for the fiqh. The Qur'an draws the line plainly:

وَأَحَلَّ ٱللَّهُ ٱلْبَيْعَ وَحَرَّمَ ٱلرِّبَوٰا

"But Allah has permitted trading and forbidden interest [ribā]."

Qur'an, al-Baqarah 2:275, Mustafa Khattab's translation as shown on quran.com. "Interest" is Khattab's word; what ribā covers is the subject of the companion article.¹⁶

But a person who is legally required to hold savings in a regulated trust is not in the same position as someone freely choosing a bank. The companion article works through how scholars treat that situation. In short, the common position is that you choose the most compliant option reasonably open to you, purify what you cannot avoid, and keep checking. This article is about the "reasonably open to you" part.

One more piece of plumbing: stapling. Since 1 November 2021, if you start a new job and do not choose a fund, your employer must ask the ATO for your "stapled" fund, which is normally your existing account, and pay into that.¹⁷ So your fund follows you. That is helpful if you already chose well, and a trap if you forgot you had an old default account from a teenage job.

2. What "halal" screening actually means

Nobody sells a fund that holds only perfectly clean assets. Listed companies borrow, keep cash in banks, and sell a wide range of goods. Shariah screening is a set of tolerances that decides how much impurity is acceptable, and then a purification step for the part that remains.

Sector screens

The first pass removes companies whose main business is prohibited: conventional banking and insurance, alcohol, pork, gambling, adult entertainment, and usually tobacco and weapons. Salaam, for example, says it excludes companies earning profits from "alcohol, gambling, riba/interest, weapons".¹¹

Financial ratio screens

The second pass looks at the balance sheet. The standard most Islamic funds cite is AAOIFI's Shari'ah Standard No. 21 on financial papers. As it is generally summarised (for example by the screening service Zoya), interest-bearing debt and interest-bearing deposits must each stay below 30% of the company's market capitalisation, and income from non-compliant activity must stay below 5% of revenue.¹⁵

Index providers use slightly different numbers. The Dow Jones Islamic Market methodology (September 2026 version) caps total interest-bearing debt at 33% of the trailing 24-month average market capitalisation, and non-permissible revenue at 5%.¹⁴ S&P's own Shariah index family has used a one-third leverage limit too, and has adjusted its cash and interest screens over time, so read the current methodology rather than a blog summary.¹⁴

Why a third? Screening bodies commonly point to the Prophet's ﷺ words to Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ about bequests, which fixed the upper limit of a bequest at a third and called even that a lot:

فَالثُّلُثُ، وَالثُّلُثُ كَثِيرٌ

"One third, yet even one third is too much."

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 2742 (Book of Wills). Ṣaḥīḥ, as collected by al-Bukhārī.¹⁶

The hadith is about wills, not balance sheets. Using it as a benchmark for "a lot" is an analogy made by contemporary scholars, and AAOIFI's own figure, 30%, is lower again. That is worth knowing, because it tells you these thresholds are considered judgements and not scripture.

Purification

Because the 5% tolerance lets some impure income in, a fund following these standards is supposed to calculate that share and give it away. The Dow Jones and S&P methodologies both publish the same basic formula for dividend purification: dividends multiplied by non-permissible income over total income.¹⁴ I return to this in section 9.

3. What is available now (October 2026)

The honest answer is: less than there was two years ago. Here is what I could verify.

Salaam

Crescent Wealth Superannuation Fund was, for years, the other name in Islamic super. Three of its options (Balanced, Conservative and Growth) failed APRA's performance test for trustee-directed products, published on 31 August 2023.⁸ On or around 1 June 2024 its members were moved by successor fund transfer into a new Salaam division of the Russell Investments Master Trust. The trustee is Total Risk Management Pty Ltd. Crescent's Defensive, Balanced, Balanced Global and Growth options were mapped to Salaam Defensive, Balanced and Growth.⁷

Salaam says its Shariah Supervisory Board is Dar Al Sharia, that it follows AAOIFI standards, and that IdealRatings screens its holdings.¹¹ Its Shariah compliance page says impure income such as "unavoidable bank interest" is "identified and removed" and "donated to charity". It does not publish the amounts or the charities.¹¹ Its current PDS is dated 1 April 2026; fees sit in a separate investment guide, and I have not quoted them here because I could not confirm the figures from a dated primary document.

Adviser-led Shariah portfolios on platforms

Some advisers run Shariah-screened managed portfolios inside a platform super fund. One example is Meezan Wealth, which lists Islamic Ethical Growth, Islamic Ethical Growth Plus and ACS Mixed Asset Growth portfolios through the Super Simplifier platform, with IdealRatings screening against AAOIFI standards and certification from ISRA. The trustee named on its page is Equity Trustees Superannuation Limited.¹² Given that trustee's announced exit from super (below), anyone considering or holding such a product should ask directly who the trustee will be in 2027.⁴

ASX-quoted Islamic ETFs

The Hejaz Equities Fund (ASX: ISLM) listed in October 2022 as one of the first two Shariah-screened funds on the ASX, with Equity Trustees Limited as responsible entity. It was still quoted in late August 2026, when it released its June 2026 portfolio. Its sister fund, the Hejaz Property Fund (HJZP), closed: the responsible entity gave notice on 22 April 2026 that it was unlikely to reach viable scale, with a last trading day of 20 May 2026.¹³ An ETF is not a super fund. You can only hold one inside super through an SMSF or a platform whose menu includes it.

Mainstream "ethical" options

Many large funds offer ethical or sustainable options. These screen on different grounds and generally hold banks, insurers and bonds. I found no mainstream Australian fund offering an option described as Shariah-certified. If you know of one, I would like to hear about it.

4. If you are a Hejaz member: what is actually known

The public record is thinner than it should be, so I will separate what I could confirm from what I could not.

Confirmed from reporting. Financial Standard reported on 31 August 2026 that Hejaz Islamic Super and Pension had about 2,600 members and more than $98 million (as at March 2026). Members' investments were moved to cash on 12 June 2026 and switching stopped. The fund will stop accepting contributions and transfers in on 30 September 2026 and close "as soon as practicable" after investments are redeemed and benefits paid out.¹ Members can nominate another fund. The article did not report a successor fund transfer, which would have moved everyone automatically.

Two accounts of why. Hejaz's chief executive, Hakan Ozyon, said the closure followed Equity Trustees' strategic decision to leave super trusteeship. Equity Trustees told the same publication the decision was taken to protect members' financial interests after governance reviews, and that it had no connection to its wider exit.¹ Equity Trustees had announced to the ASX on 22 June 2026 that it would withdraw from super trusteeship.⁴ I cannot tell you which account is right, and it does not change what members need to do.

The dates in the member notice. I could not find the trustee's notice itself online. Salaam has published a summary aimed at Hejaz members, which says:

• 30 September 2026: no more employer, salary sacrifice, personal or rollover contributions;
• 10 October 2026: an initial payment is expected to go to your new fund;
• 12 October 2026: last day to give Hejaz your new fund details, after which balances are transferred to the ATO;
• end of February 2027: the remaining balance is expected to be paid;
• any insurance attached to your Hejaz account may end when the account closes.²

Salaam is a competitor and that page is marketing, so treat it as a pointer to your own letter rather than the letter itself. A super clearing house used by employers separately lists the Hejaz Islamic Super USI as "Closing 29/09/2026", which suggests payroll teams should stop sending money a day early.³

When I checked on 27 September 2026, and again on 1 and 2 October 2026, Hejaz's public super page still described a "short pause" on new members and said existing members could "make contributions" as normal. On 1 October the same page also carried a note that rollovers and redemptions out of the fund would be delayed because unit pricing of the underlying investments was delayed, pointing members to a significant event notice issued on 20 August 2026, which I could not find published online. Equity Trustees' funds-under-trusteeship page still listed Hejaz inside AMG Super.⁶⁵ Neither is a reason to ignore the notice; websites lag.

If your balance does go to the ATO, it is not lost. You can move it to a fund later through myGov.¹⁷ But you would be making a second decision under less control, and some super funds tell members that ATO-held amounts attract interest linked to CPI.¹⁸ For a Muslim trying to avoid interest, that is one more reason to nominate a fund yourself before the deadline.

Where Hejaz is heading. It helps to know what else the group is doing. In May 2025 Hakan Ozyon told Banking Day that Hejaz was putting much of its growth into Bahrain, starting with an asset management licence there and then a banking licence.²⁵ In April 2026 it closed two of its five ASX-listed ETFs, saying they were unlikely to reach a viable size.²⁶ By June 2026 he was telling interviewers "we regard ourselves as a tech business", and the group's effort has gone into Wahda, a Muslim messaging and social "super app" published through Hejaz's Bahrain company and pitched first at Indonesia and Pakistan.²⁷²⁸ None of this suggests wrongdoing, and Hejaz still runs three ASX funds and its home finance business. It does tell a member one practical thing, though: the super product is closing inside a group whose attention has moved elsewhere, so I would not wait for a replacement from the same stable.

5. How to switch without losing things

Choose, then open

Pick the receiving fund first and open an account there. You need its name, USI and your new member number. Most employees can choose their fund; if a workplace agreement limits choice, check with payroll.

Insurance before anything else

This is the step people skip. Default death, total and permanent disability and income protection cover sits inside your super account. The ATO's own transfer guidance warns that if you leave a fund "you may lose these entitlements".¹⁷ New cover in a new fund may involve fresh health questions, waiting periods or exclusions for existing conditions. If you have dependants or a medical history, get the replacement cover confirmed in writing before the old account closes. Separately, since 1 July 2019 insurance in an account that has had no contributions for 16 months must be switched off unless you opt in, so a dormant receiving account may have no cover at all.¹⁹

Fees

Exit fees on switching super were banned from 1 July 2019, and fees on balances under $6,000 are capped.¹⁹ Buy-sell spreads and other transaction costs can still apply, so read the fees section of both PDSs.

The rollover

The ATO route is myGov: ATO, then Super, then Manage, then Transfer super. The ATO says funds "generally take 3 days".¹⁷ This moves your whole balance. If you have told a fund you intend to claim a tax deduction for personal contributions, get that notice acknowledged before you transfer, because afterwards it is too late.¹⁷

Tell your employer

Give payroll a standard choice form with the new fund's details. Under Payday Super your contributions now go out every pay cycle, so a delay of a week or two means contributions going to the wrong place.

6. The performance test and the YourSuper tool

Since 2021 APRA has run an annual performance test. A product that fails must tell members, and one that fails twice in a row cannot take new members until it passes.²⁹ The ATO's YourSuper comparison tool shows MySuper products only: fees, returns over 3, 5 and 10 years, and whether each product is "performing", "underperforming" or "not assessed".¹⁷

Two points for Muslims. First, the test benchmarks against a conventional portfolio that includes bonds and banks. A Shariah fund cannot hold those, so over a period when bonds or banks do well it may lag for structural reasons. Salaam says as much on its FAQ page.¹¹ That is an explanation, not an excuse: returns still compound for thirty years.

Second, a product can sit outside the test entirely. When Crescent's members moved to Salaam, APRA told Financial Newswire (August 2024) that the new products were "externally managed" and so "not currently classified as TDPs and therefore are not captured by the performance test".⁹ I did not find any Islamic super product among the failures in the 2025 results, and the 2026 results released on 28 August 2026 (one MySuper and eleven platform products failed) did not mention one either.¹⁰ But "did not fail" and "was not tested" are different statements, so ask the fund which applies.

7. An SMSF instead?

A self-managed super fund lets you pick every holding yourself, including Islamic ETFs or directly screened shares. It sounds like the clean answer. It comes with real costs.

• Moneysmart says SMSF members spend on average more than 8 hours a month running the fund.²⁰
• You pay accounting, tax and audit fees, plus the ATO supervisory levy, which has been $259 a year since 2014–15.¹⁷
• If money is lost to theft or fraud, there is no government compensation, and you cannot complain to AFCA.²⁰
• The trustees (you) must write and follow an investment strategy and consider insurance for members.

ASIC removed its old minimum-balance rule of thumb in 2022 and says balance alone does not decide suitability, but fixed costs weigh far more heavily on a small fund.²⁰ On its Islamic finance page, Moneysmart also warns about people being pressured to move super into an SMSF or into pooled "community investment" schemes that may not be legal.²⁰ An SMSF also does not solve purification for you: you still need to calculate and give away the impure share of every dividend.

8. Cash options and interest

In a conventional fund the "cash" option is money on deposit or in short-term securities, and its return is interest. Moving to cash does not make super halal. In an Islamic fund, "cash" should mean Shariah-compliant deposits or short-term sukuk, but the label alone does not tell you that.

Hejaz members have been in cash since 12 June 2026. It is reasonable to ask the trustee in writing what that cash was held in, and whether any part of the return credited to you was interest. If it was, the companion article explains why most scholars would say that portion should be given away rather than kept. The same question applies to any amount held by the ATO.

9. Purification in practice

The principle has wide scholarly agreement, drawn from 2:279 ("if you repent, you may retain your principal") and the rulings built on it:¹⁶ income that came from riba or other prohibited sources is not yours to enjoy, and should be passed on to charity without expecting reward. The companion article sets out the evidence and the differences of opinion on detail. The practical difficulty in super is that you never see the dividends. The fund does.

Step 1: ask the fund

If a fund says it purifies at fund level, ask for the purification rate or amount for the last financial year, as a percentage of assets or of income, and the list of recipients. If they purify before crediting your returns, you may have nothing further to do. If they cannot tell you, write down that they declined.

Step 2: if you have to estimate

Use the index formula: income × (non-permissible income ÷ total income). Where the fund gives no figure, one household approach is to take the investment earnings credited to you for the year (from your annual statement) and apply a percentage. The 5% screening ceiling works as a cautious upper bound, since no screened company should exceed it. What percentage is right for you is a question for your scholar.

Step 3: give it, and keep a note

Scholars who require purification generally treat it as separate from zakat and sadaqah: you are removing something that was never yours, so it is not counted as your charity. That is juristic reasoning rather than a text, and the companion article gives the detail. Record the amount and date each year. If you later receive a figure from the fund, you can adjust.

10. Zakat on super

This is a real difference of scholarly opinion, not a settled rule, and the Australian context matters because our super is far less accessible than an American 401(k).

View one: no zakat until you can access it

Darul Ifta Australia (Mufti Faizal Riza, 13 February 2013) says "it is not compulsory to pay zakat on one's superannuation money until one gains access to it", and that once you do, you pay from then on and not for past years. It cites Mufti Ebrahim Desai and Mufti Emran Vawda in support.²¹ A footnote records a minority view that zakat is due every year where a person has chosen the fund and handed the money over to be invested; the mufti does not adopt it, but calls acting on it, to be on the safe side, commendable. Since this article is precisely about choosing a fund, that footnote is worth reading in full.²¹ The National Zakat Foundation Australia takes the same line: before preservation age the money is "inaccessible and illiquid", so no annual zakat is due.²² AMJA's Dr Main al-Qudah (2006) put the test in one line for US accounts: if you can legally withdraw it, zakat is due, and if you cannot, it is not.²³

View two: zakat every year on the vested balance

The Fiqh Council of North America (Dr Yasir Qadhi and Sh. Umer Khan, first published February 2024) holds that zakat on retirement accounts "is an annual obligation".²⁴ It offers two methods: treat the account as a long-term investment and use the method for shares, or treat it as liquid and pay on the value after the taxes and penalties of an early withdrawal. That reasoning rests heavily on the fact that US accounts can be cashed in early with a penalty. Most Australian super cannot be withdrawn at all before a condition of release, which is why Australian bodies lean towards view one.

I could not find a ruling from the Australian National Imams Council on zakat on super, and I have not found an AAOIFI standard that addresses Australian-style preserved super directly. If your balance is large, or you have reached preservation age, this is a question to take to a scholar with your statement in hand.

11. The checklist

Questions to ask any fund, Islamic or not

• Who is the Shariah adviser or board, by name, and how often do they review holdings?
• Which screening standard do you use (AAOIFI, a Dow Jones or MSCI methodology, your own)? What are the debt and impure-income thresholds?
• Will you publish last year's purification amount and the names of the recipients?
• Is there an independent Shariah audit, and can I read it?
• What is the cash component invested in?
• Is this option subject to APRA's performance test? If so, what was its latest result?
• What are the total fees on a balance like mine, including administration, investment and transaction costs?
• What default insurance comes with the account, what does it cost, and how do I apply for more cover?
• Who is the trustee, and is any change of trustee planned?

Checking a fund's holdings yourself

You do not have to take a fund's word for its screening. Since March 2022 most super trustees have had to publish what each investment option actually holds, twice a year as at 31 December and 30 June, within 90 days of those dates, on a public part of their website that needs no member login.³⁰ That turns a Shariah claim into something you can test in ten minutes:

• Search the fund's website for "portfolio holdings disclosure" and download the latest file for the option you hold or are considering.
• Search it for names you know should not be there: the big banks, conventional insurers, brewers, casino operators.
• Look at the cash and fixed-income lines. Are they described as Islamic deposits or sukuk, or as ordinary bank deposits and bonds?
• Note any line that is simply another managed fund. Holdings of unrelated managers' funds do not have to be broken down,³⁰ so ask the fund what sits inside it.

Doing the same with a mainstream "ethical" option is a quick way to see how far it is from a Shariah screen.

What I would check this week if I were a Hejaz member

• Find the trustee's letter or email about the closure and read the dates in it, not someone else's summary.
• Log in and download your latest statement. Note the balance, the insurance cover and its cost.
• Decide whether you need that insurance. If you do, apply for replacement cover now and do not let the old cover lapse first.
• Choose a receiving fund, open the account, and write down its USI and your member number.
• Give Hejaz the new details by 12 October 2026 at the latest (or whatever date your own notice gives). As I write, on 2 October, that is ten days away.
• Send payroll a new choice form today if you have not already. Hejaz stopped accepting contributions on 30 September, so any pay run since then needs to go to your new fund.
• If you made personal contributions this year and plan to claim a deduction, lodge and get acknowledgement of your notice of intent before the money moves.
• Ask in writing what the cash since 12 June was held in, and whether any return was interest.
• Keep the account on your radar until the final payment, expected around the end of February 2027.
• Do not let marketing emails, including from Islamic providers, rush your choice of fund. A week spent reading two PDSs is time well used.

There is no neat conclusion to this. The Australian market for Islamic super has shrunk to a handful of doors, and none of them yet shows members the purification figures that would let us check the claims for ourselves. The best we can do for now is to choose carefully, ask for disclosure every year, and purify what we cannot avoid.

Sources

1. Financial Standard, K. Vergara, "Equity Trustees super exit sparks Hejaz Islamic Super and Pension closure", 31 August 2026. financialstandard.com.au
2. Salaam, "Hejaz Member Options" (viewed 27 September, 1 October and 2 October 2026). salaam.com.au
3. Super clearing house knowledge base, "Current fund changes" (page updated 15 September 2026; viewed 1 October 2026). zendesk.com
4. EQT Holdings, ASX announcement, "Equity Trustees to focus on core Corporate Trustee...", 22 June 2026. asx.com.au
5. Equity Trustees, "Funds under trusteeship" (viewed 27 September 2026). eqt.com.au
6. Hejaz Financial Services, Islamic Super page (viewed 27 September, 1 October and 2 October 2026). hejazfs.com.au
7. Crescent Wealth, "Crescent Wealth Superannuation Fund members transferring to the Salaam superannuation Division of the Russell Investments Master Trust" (2024). crescentwealth.com.au
8. APRA, "APRA releases 2023 superannuation performance test results", 31 August 2023, and the 2023 trustee-directed products results page. apra.gov.au; apra.gov.au
9. Financial Newswire, "'Failed' Crescent super fund members transition beyond performance test", 7 August 2024. financialnewswire.com.au
10. APRA, 2025 trustee-directed products results (August 2025) and "APRA releases 2026 superannuation performance test and product insights", 28 August 2026. apra.gov.au; apra.gov.au
11. Salaam, Superannuation FAQ and Shariah Compliance pages (viewed 27 September 2026); Russell Investments, Salaam Super Guide, 4 September 2026. salaam.com.au/super/faq; salaam.com.au/shariah-compliance; russellinvestments.com
12. Meezan Wealth, Islamic Super (viewed 27 September 2026). meezanwealth.com.au
13. InvestorDaily, "Sharia-compliant ETFs now available on the ASX", 17 October 2022; Hejaz Property Fund, Notice of Closure, 22 April 2026; Kalkine, ISLM quarterly portfolio disclosure, 25 August 2026. investordaily.com.au; listcorp.com; kalkine.com.au
14. S&P Dow Jones Indices, Dow Jones Islamic Market Indices methodology (2026) and S&P Shariah Indices methodology (May 2026); S&P Shariah compliance criteria update, 4 August 2023. DJIM; S&P Shariah; 2023 update
15. Zoya, "How do you determine Shariah compliance?" (summary of AAOIFI SS 21 thresholds). help.zoya.finance
16. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 2742. sunnah.com; Qur'an 2:275 and 2:279 (Khattab). quran.com; quran.com
17. ATO, Super guarantee rates and Payday Super; Stapled super funds for employers; Transferring or consolidating your super; YourSuper comparison tool; ATO-held super; SMSF supervisory levy (all viewed 27 September 2026). SG; stapling; transfers; YourSuper; ATO-held super; SMSF levy
18. Resolution Life, low-balance transfers to the ATO (on CPI-linked interest). resolutionlife.com.au
19. Treasury Ministers, "New measures to protect your superannuation: commencing 1 July 2019". treasury.gov.au
20. Moneysmart, "Self-managed super fund (SMSF)" and "Islamic finance in Australia"; ASIC media release 22-345MR (2022). SMSF; Islamic finance; ASIC
21. Darul Ifta Australia, "Zakat on superannuation", 13 February 2013. fatwa.org.au
22. National Zakat Foundation Australia, "Zakat on Superannuation". nzf.org.au
23. AMJA, Fatwa 21964, "Zakat on 401K or retirement plan", 2006. amjaonline.org
24. Fiqh Council of North America, "Zakat on Retirement Accounts", 26 February 2024 (updated 2026). fiqhcouncil.org
25. Banking Day, I. Rogers, "Hejaz plot path to banking licence", 13 May 2025. bankingday.com
26. Money Management, L. Dew, "Hejaz closes two active ETFs", 28 April 2026. moneymanagement.com.au
27. eCommerceNews Australia, "Tech reinvent as Hejaz teases 'Wahda' superapp launch", 16 June 2026. ecommercenews.com.au
28. Apple App Store, "Wahda", seller Hejaz B.S.C (Closed) (viewed 27 September 2026). apps.apple.com
29. APRA, "Your Future, Your Super: frequently asked questions" (member notices after a failed test; no new members after two consecutive fails). apra.gov.au
30. ASFA, "Delivering on portfolio holdings and fees and costs disclosure", 24 August 2022 (portfolio holdings disclosure: twice yearly, within 90 days of 31 December and 30 June, no log-on required; first reporting date 31 December 2021): superannuation.asn.au