The ruling on taking a commission for currency exchange between two countries
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
The questioner says: I work in the Kingdom, and I own a grocery store in my home country. Some people give me a sum of money to give to the worker at the grocery store in my home country, who is a relative of this man. I take a commission for this. What is the ruling on this work?
The Shaykh:
There is a problem with this, because it is currency exchange. You give him dirhams here, and he gives you the equivalent in your country, and you take a commission on it, as you mentioned. There is a problem with this. If possible, you should send the dirhams with a trustworthy person to deliver them to your family; that is the sound way. If that is not possible, you can exchange the dirhams here, exchanging the currency here for your country's currency, and then send your country's currency to your country to be exchanged there.
The questioner:
The value of the transfer.
The Shaykh:
The value, yes.
The questioner:
The value of the transfer.
The Shaykh:
A transfer (hawalah) is not subject to any fee. A transfer is a contract of spending, and nothing is taken from it. Yes.
The questioner:
The bank takes a fee for the transfer.
The Shaykh:
The bank has no proof. A transfer is a contract, and nothing is imposed on it. So seek a sound path, and may Allah make it easy for you. Yes.
The questioner says: I work in the Kingdom, and I own a grocery store in my home country. Some people give me a sum of money to give to the worker at the grocery store in my home country, who is a relative of this man. I take a commission for this. What is the ruling on this work?
The Shaykh:
There is a problem with this, because it is currency exchange. You give him dirhams here, and he gives you the equivalent in your country, and you take a commission on it, as you mentioned. There is a problem with this. If possible, you should send the dirhams with a trustworthy person to deliver them to your family; that is the sound way. If that is not possible, you can exchange the dirhams here, exchanging the currency here for your country's currency, and then send your country's currency to your country to be exchanged there.
The questioner:
The value of the transfer.
The Shaykh:
The value, yes.
The questioner:
The value of the transfer.
The Shaykh:
A transfer (hawalah) is not subject to any fee. A transfer is a contract of spending, and nothing is taken from it. Yes.
The questioner:
The bank takes a fee for the transfer.
The Shaykh:
The bank has no proof. A transfer is a contract, and nothing is imposed on it. So seek a sound path, and may Allah make it easy for you. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، محاضرات في العقيدة والدعوة-087-مظاهر ضعف العقيدة في عصرنا الحاضر وطرق علاجها|صالح الفوزان — youtube.com (1:08:59)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.