A man borrowed a sum of money from another man years ago, and when he wanted to repay it, the value of the money had fallen and become lower than it was years before.

The Shaykh : I want to take this question as an opportunity to remind you of a matter I assumed would be clear and obvious to the general Muslim youth, but it turns out it is not. This question, knowing the truth of the answer to it, leads to the resolution of many problems. Perhaps a person borrowed from his friend ten years ago, ten thousand, five thousand, more or less, Syrian pounds. Then the days passed, the value of the pound fell, and gold rose, until you heard what you heard. Perhaps a man married a woman twenty or thirty years ago and wrote for her a deferred mahr, especially if it was, what? In the style of contentment and sufficiency; meaning five hundred notes, a thousand notes. And if five hundred notes today are worth only about fifty notes or less, and now the man wants to pay his wife the deferred mahr before his death; is he doing a good deed if he hands her five hundred notes and his liability is cleared? The answer is: No. A time may come when five hundred notes become such that the paper in your hand might be more useful for writing on— and I do not say more valuable— than these five hundred Syrian pounds; because nothing can be bought with them and no benefit can be derived from them. So can it be said: We have cleared our liability, we gave our wife five hundred notes, and the matter is finished?
No. The secret is that these paper currencies that the present age in all countries has been afflicted with are among the misfortunes of people. And although people, due to the worries of their worldly lives and their running about like beasts, have stopped feeling it, and it is true of them: "There is no pain in a wound on a dead man," they no longer feel this problem, except when some issues arise, like now gold has risen, and we felt, what is the value of this currency? This currency has no value. These are certificates in reality, and this is known in the terminology of countries generally. So if the value of the Syrian currency falls, this currency has no value. You have to go back to gold. You owe a thousand notes from five years ago, you have to pay it now, not a thousand notes; the value of the thousand notes in gold at that time. You have to give him gold. And some of the heedless or those who pretend to be heedless say: My brother, we did not receive gold. My dear, that is correct, but you received what is equivalent to so much gold, otherwise the paper has no value. Therefore, we must preserve this, whether it is for us or against us. We borrow from people without depriving them of their right; because, by Allah, they did us a favor, and we repay them now with the currency we borrowed from him in Syrian paper, even if the value has become half or less than that. Likewise, the woman we took by the right of Allah and the covenant of Allah, we do not wrong her and give her the named amount of paper currency. Likewise, now we want to pay zakah on these ornaments, we do not pay it except at the current value. A piece we bought for a hundred notes today is worth three hundred, four hundred; so... from it based on the fact that it is nine hundred based on four hundred, and so on.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : ... how much is it worth?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : ... does he not know the price of gold?

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : ... and this question, I do not ask, you ask the money changer who knows the rise and fall.
Yes.

Another questioner : ... if gold falls.

The Shaykh : ... it is the same case, my brother, the important thing is gold, you give gold.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: Yes.
Second: What is the ruling on tattooing?

The questioner : Excuse me, Shaykh Abu 'Abd al-Rahman.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : Regarding the issue of the mahr and its determination in gold, for example, the husband ten years ago when he agreed to a mahr— for example— a specific amount of gold, he estimated in his mind that, meaning, even... even to break the value of this mahr— for example— he would work for a month, for example. But now, after ten years, when he wants to pay the value of the mahr at today's price, he has to work, meaning, a full year instead of a month. Is there not injustice here, meaning, in the right of the husband?

The Shaykh : No, there is no injustice; with the discussion in the question or the exaggeration in depicting the question, I do not think the difference is as you are imagining, instead of working a month he works a year, I do not think that is the case; on the contrary; because the salary, when the salary— for example— for the ordinary worker was two hundred notes, three hundred notes, today it became how much? It became a thousand and more; so it catches up with each other, meaning.

Another questioner : ... the ratio.

The Shaykh : I do not care about the same ratio, Professor, I have no one to answer to now, and I am not saying that it is the same ratio, but I am discussing the hypothesis that what he gets in a month now takes a year, that is an exaggeration, meaning. Nevertheless, you took this woman by the covenant of Allah and His pact, and I will return to say: I did not give her a mahr of paper currency that has no value, but what is equivalent to so much and so much gold. Then you did not lend, but you deferred. So if something happens that befalls you after that, some harm as you depict, she is not responsible, she does not deserve to be wronged because you deferred the mahr.
And perhaps this is an opportunity to mention what we always and forever talk about, and this is among the virtues of the Sunnah: dividing the mahr into two parts and making it a system in the marriage of a man to a woman, it must be that it is advanced and deferred. This is an innovation in Islam with no basis whatsoever. And with its innovativeness from the legal aspect; it is one of the factors that make the relationship between the spouses a hellish mahr relationship. Often it does not suit one of the spouses the other, and they want to get rid of each other, but the man is bound with a bond, and what a heavy bond, written on it five thousand and ten thousand, but... in our way that the brother has made heavy, five thousand ten thousand today what do they amount to? God is Great! Where is this man who wrote this amount on himself going to get it? He will live with her reluctantly. Where did this problem come from? From our commitment to what is not necessary, from our division of the mahr into immediate and deferred, and then "a bundle of straw on a camel's back" today. And this is from the corruption of society; the one in authority becomes lenient in the immediate mahr and expensive in the deferred mahr, increasing the weight of what? The bond around the neck of this husband.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : They said: — (Glorified and Exalted is He)—; therefore, when the... problem in some of its forms and manifestations, who is responsible for it? This ignorant people who do not commit to all the Islamic etiquettes and take Islam in its entirety, not divisible, these problems come out, we are responsible for them.