Gold and Silver are the Two Currencies that the Islamic State Should Adopt

প্রশ্ন · Question

Assalamu alaykom wa rahmatullah wa barakatuhu,
May Allah ﷻ bless and protect you our Shaykh...
Question: Some thinkers in our country, Indonesia, refuse to return to
the use of gold and silver currencies, and say that Shari’ah does not
dictate that specific money be used, using the evidence that Umar ibn
al-Khattab intended to make dirhams from camel skins, so is this
opinion correct? May Allah reward you.

উত্তর · Answer

Wa Alaikum Assalam wa Rahmatullah wa Barakatuh,

1. We have explained the Shari’ah evidence that gold and silver are the
two currencies that the state should adopt in Islam, and we have
mentioned the details of that in the books, The Economic System in
Islam and Funds in the Khilafah State... We also explained the topic in
the book, Draft Constitution of the Khilafah State Vol. II, under Article
167 and its explanation... I will convey to you what was mentioned in
the Draft Constitution in this regard for its clarity and smoothness:
(Article 167: The currency of the State is to be restricted to gold and
silver, whether minted or not. No other form of currency for the State
is permitted. The State can issue something as a substitute for gold or
silver provided that the Bayt Al -Mal has the equivalent amount of gold
and silver to cover the issued coinage. Thus, the State may issue
coinage in its name from brass, bronze or paper notes and so on as
long as it is covered completely by gold and silver.
The necessary evidences for it:
When Islam decided the rules of selling and hiring, it did not specify
what would be exchanged for the goods or service and benefit such
that upon that basis that thing would become obligatory. Rather it left
man to exchange using anything as long as there was mutual consent
for that exchange, and so it is permitted to marry a woman upon
teaching her sewing, and to buy a car in exchange for working in the
factory for a month, and it is permitted to work for an individual for a
specific amount of sugar. The Shari’ah left the issue of exchange open
for people so that they could base it upon whatever they wanted,
which is proven by the generality of the evidences for trade and hiring
such as:
(حَلَّ اللَّهُ الْبَيْعَ
َ
وَأ ) And Allah has permitted trade” (TMQ 2:275) – for
anything and by anything, and the narration:
«نْ يَجِفَّ عَرَقُهُ
َ
جْرَهُ قَبْلَ أ
َ
عْطُوا الَْجِيَْ أ
َ
أ» “Give the worker his wages before
his sweat dries.” (reported by Ibn Majah); in other words, that the

worker should receive his salary when he finishes his work, whatever
the nature of that wage.
Additionally, these things that are used for exchange are not actions
such that they would in origin be restricted (to the evidence) and so
their permission would require an evidence, but rather they are things.
The origin regarding things is that they are permitted as long as there
is no evidence to prohibit them, and there is no evidence reported
which prohibits using anything as an exchange, and so accordingly it is
permitted to carry out Shari’ah transactions with them whether buying
and selling, giving as a gift or exchanging with the exception of
anything where there is a text prohibiting its exchange. Based upon
this, exchanging goods for money, and money for goods is permitted
without any restrictions, except for exchanging money with money
because it has specific rules and so it is restricted by those rules. In the
same manner, exchanging effort for money, and money for effort, is
permitted without restriction unless the goods or service have been
mentioned in a text as being forbidden. Accordingly, to exchange
goods for a specific form of money, and in the same manner to
exchange a service or effort for a specific unit of money, is also
permitted without any restriction, whatever the unit of that money
may be. So irrespective of whether that unit doesn’t have anything
backing it, such as fiat currency, or if it was backed by a specific
amount of gold, such as secured paper currency, or if the unit was
backed by gold and silver to its value such as representative paper
currency, all of them are considered to be allowed to trade with.
Therefore, it is correct to exchange goods or services for any unit of
money and it is permitted for the Muslim to sell for any currency and
to buy with any currency and to hire with any currency and to be
employed for any currency.
However, if the State wanted the lands that it ruled to adopt a specific
unit of money, such that it implements the rules of the Shari’ah related

to finance from the angle of it being wealth such as Zakah, exchange,
interest and anything else, and the rules related to the individual who
owned the wealth such as blood money, the minimum stolen amount
that would be considered theft, and so on, then it does not have an
open hand to use any specific monetary unit, but rather it is restricted
to use only a specific type of money and no other. The Shari’ah
specified the monetary unit, from a specific genus which the text
mentioned, and this is gold and sil ver. So if the State wanted to issue a
currency, it is restricted to the money being gold and silver and
nothing else. The Shari’ah did not leave the State to issue any money it
pleased, from any type it wanted, but rather it specified the monetary
units which the State could make as a currency for itself if it wanted to
issue a currency with specific monetary units; which are gold and silver
alone. The evidence for this is that Islam connected to gold and silver
with fixed rules, and without any change.
So when blood money was specified, it was specified from a specific
amount of gold, and when the cutting of the hand of the thief was
obligated, the minimum amount that the punishment would be
applied for was specified from gold; the Messenger ﷺ said in his
message to the people of Yemen:
«لْفُ دِينَارٍ
َ
هْلِ الْوَرِقِ أ
َ
نَّ ف ِي النَّفْسِ المُؤْمِنَةِ مِاْئَةٍ مِنَ الإِبِلِ، وَعَلََ أ
َ
وَأ »
“and for the believing soul (if killed) it is one hundred camels, and for
the people of silver one thousand Dinars” (mentioned by Ibn Qudamah
in Al-Mughni from what was reported from ‘Amru b. Hazim from the
letter of the Messenger of Allah to the people of Yemen). And in the
report in Al-Nisa’i regarding the letter of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to
the people of Yemen: “and upon the people of gold it is one thousand
Dinars” in place of: “people of silver”. And he ﷺ said: «لا تُقْطَعُ يَدُ السَّارِقِ
إِلاَّ ف ِي رُب ْعِ دِينَارٍ فَصَاعِدًا » “Do not cut (the hand) except for a quarter of a
Dinar and more” (reported by Muslim from Aisha (ra)).

This defines specific rules with Dinars and Dirhams, and the weight of
the Dinar measured by gold, and the Dirham by silver, which made
them monetary units analogous to the value of objects and effort. This
monetary unit is the currency and its basis. The fact that the Shari’ah
textually connected gold and silver to the Shari’ah rules when these
rules were related to currency is evidence that the currency can only
be from gold and silver alone.
Additionally, when Allah ﷻ obligated Zakah, He ﷻ obligated it upon
gold and silver alone, and specified the Nisab from gold and silver, and
so the consideration that the Zakah upon money is by gold and silver
specifies that the currency is gold and silver, and if there was a
currency other than them then Zakah for money would have been
obligatory upon it. Because there is no text for Zakah upon money
except upon gold and silver, this indicates that there is no
consideration for any other type of money. Also, the rules of currency
exchange which were reve aled regarding monetary transactions alone
addressed gold and silver alone and all of the financial transactions
mentioned in Islam are dealt with in gold and silver. And currency
exchange is to sell money for money, either to sell one type of money
with itself, or to sell it for another type of money, and by another
expression currency exchange is to sell a currency for a currency. The
Shari’ah specified currency exchange – which is a purely monetary
transaction – with gold and silver alone, which is a cle ar evidence that
the currency must be from gold and silver and nothing else. He ﷺ said:
«وَبِيعُوا الذَّهَبَ بِالْفِضَّةِ وَالْفِضَّةَ بِالذَّهَبِ كَيْفَ شِئْتُمْ » “Sell gold for silver as you
please” (reported by Al-Bukhari from Abu Bakra). And Muslim reported
similar to it through Ubada Bin Al -Samit. The Messenger ﷺ also said:
«الذَّهَبُ بِالْوَرِقِ رِباً إِلاَّ هَاءَ وَهَاءَ » “Gold for silver is interest (usury) unless it is
exchanged hand to hand” (agreed upon from Umar).
Above that, the Messenger ﷺ specified gold and silver as money, and
made them alone the measures of monetary value which the values of

goods and efforts were measured against, and upon which basis
transactions were carried out. The measures for this currency were the
Awqiya, the Dirham, the Daniq, the Qirat, the Mithqal, and the Dinar.
These were all well known and famous at the time of the Prophet ﷺ ,
and the people would transact with them. And it is confirmed that he
ﷺ consented to them. All of the trade and marriages took place with
gold and silver, as has been confirmed by several authentic narrations,
and so the fact that the Messenger ﷺ made gold and silver the
currency, and the fact that the Shari’ah linked some of the Shari’ah
rules with them alone, and that Zakah upon money is limited to them,
and currency exchange and financial transactions were limited to
them, are all clear evidence that the money of Islam is only gold and
silver and nothing else.) Quote from the book, Draft Constitution, has
ended.
2. Thus, we find that the Shari’ah evidences concerted in indicating
that the currencies adopted by the state in Islam is gold and silver, and
that it does not adopt any other type of currency, and although the
Prophet's ﷺ approval of these two currencies is sufficient alone to
prove the legal ruling on the subject of currencies in Islam, the Shari’ah
did not stop at the point of the Messenger ﷺs approval for the two
currencies, but it went beyond that to establishing evidences on the
topic of usury, the topic of zakat, the topic of blood money... etc...
3. It was narrated on the authority of Umar, may Allah be pleased with
him, that he intended to make dirhams from camel skin, and according
to what we have researched, this was reported in two chains of
narration:
- Al-Baladhari narrated in his book, Futuh Al -Buldan (3/578): Amr al -
Naqed said: Ismael ibn Ibrahim said: Yonis ibn Ubaid, on the authority
of Al-Hassan said: The people, who were people of disbelief, knew the
status of this dirham in the eyes of the people, so they embellished

and protected it, but when it came to you, you cheated and spoiled it.
And Umar ibn Al-Khattab said:
I thought of making dirhams from camel skins. He was told that in that
case there will be no baby camels, and he gave up the idea.
- Abdul-Razzaq Al-San’aii (died in 211AH) narrated in his book “Tafsir of
Abdul-Razzaq”: Mu’ammar and Yahya said: Ayoub said: Ibn Sirin said:
that Umar ibn Al -Khattab wanted to make dirhams out of camel skin,
so they said to him: “they (camels) will then become extinct, so he
gave up the idea.”
Some have tried to infer by this that it is permissible for the state in
Islam not to make its currency in gold and silver and to make cash from
any known currency such as leather and the like... As you mentioned in
your question, some people of this age refuse to return to the gold and
silver standard and approve the banknotes, basing their claim on this
saying narrated on the authority of Umar, may Allah be pleased with
him... and in response to this matter, there are different aspects as
outlined below:
A- As we mentioned and explained above, the legal evidence is
concerted in indicating that currency in Islam is gold and silver, based
on the approval of the Prophet ﷺ and from the Shari’ah’s many
rulings being linked to gold and silver considering them as currencies...
so how can all of this evidence be left and set aside, and resort to one
narration about Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, to prove a
statement that contradicts the clear and firm evidence? Is this not a
strange matter, far from the correct inference of Shar’i evidence?!
B- There is a problem with this narration with its two chains of
transmission, as there is an interruption in both chains of narrations
because the first narrator on the authority of Umar ibn al -Khattab is al-
Hasan al -Basri, who did not meet with Umar, may Allah be pleased
with him, and did not take (knowledge) from him because he was born

at the end of the caliphate of Umar, shortly before his death. And the
narrator in the second narration is Ibn Sirin, and he also did not meet
with Umar ibn al-Khattab and did not narrate from him, and it was said
that he was born at the end of the Caliphate of Umar and it was said
during the Caliphate of Uthman... so how is it correct to take these
narrations in which there is an interruption in the chain of transmission
in contrast to the authentic hadiths of the Prophet?!
C- The narration of Al -Hasan Al -Basri in which Umar bin Al -Khattab,
may Allah be pleased with him, said: “I thought of making dirhams
from camel skins”, means that the matter did not go beyond a
“thought” of Umar's in doing an action, and he did not act upon it... so
how can we use this as evidence for the permissibility of using other
than gold and silver as currency? In other words, how do we rely on a
mere "thought" from Umar that has not been fulfilled in exchange for
evidence from the Noble Qur’an and solid evidence from the
Messenger of Allah ﷺ of which it is clear the restriction of currency in
Islam?! Is this not a strange thing?!
D- The fixed matter is that the Rightly Guided Caliphs used, like the
Messenger of Allah ﷺgold and silver as currency, meaning that the
currency used during the days of the caliphate of Umar, may Allah be
pleased with him, was the gold dinar and the silver dirham... so how
can we leave this constant and steady matter in the days of the
Prophet ﷺ and the rightly -guided caliphs, including Umar, and take a
narration that says that Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, thought
of making dirhams from camel skins?! That is, how do we take a
narration about his "thought" and leave what is proven from his action
of using gold and silver as currency during the days of his caliphate,
may Allah be pleased with all the companions?
Thus it becomes clear that the inference by the narrated saying on the
authority of Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, is a misplaced
inference and that it does not rise as evidence for the statement that

Islam did not define a currency for the state, and it is also not suitable
for opposing the strongest and proven evidence ...
4. In addition to the above mentioned, leaving the gold and silver rule
in the world and adopting banknotes has resulted in many and great
damages such as fluctuating exchange rates, the US dollar’s control of
the markets, the damage to the currencies of weak countries and the
decrease in their purchasing power at very high rates, as well as other
known damages to everyone who follows the monetary, financial and
economic aspects...
This damage will not be eliminated from the control of the major
capitalist countries, especially America except by returning to the gold
and silver standard and adopting them as currencies, and dragging the
world into adopting them as currencies to remove those damages
arising from the hegemony of paper money of the Kafir colonial
countries and the control of the global economy, especially from
America... and the Caliphate state is the country qualified to do so, by
the will of Allah...
All of the above clearly demonstrates the necessity of gold and silver
being the only legitimate currency of the Khilafah state... And Allah
Knows Best and is Most Wise.
Your brother,
Abu Yasin
24th Muharram 1442 AH
12/09/2020 CE