Some scholars have permitted the exchange of paper currency for coinage; what is your opinion on this?

The questioner : O Shaykh, regarding the issue of exchanging paper currency for coinage, some contemporary scholars have permitted the difference between paper currency and coinage, citing certain reports from the Salaf that they permitted the difference between broken dirhams or those that were less than the original dirhams, or what are called *ziyuf*. Is there any validity to this argument?

The Shaykh : Paper currency did not exist previously. As for other metals, such as yellow or red copper, or similar things, those did exist, and their statement is valid. However, it is not permissible to treat paper currency as equivalent to these dirhams, which, as I said, are *ziyuf*, because these are exchanged for gold, not for *ziyuf* dirhams.

The questioner : In the same topic, does it follow that it is not permissible to buy grapes on credit, or those other items on credit with money?

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : The other items that are measured by volume or weight, such as apples and grapes, mean that it is not permissible to buy them on credit with money, because the hand-to-hand exchange has not taken place.

The Shaykh : My brother, the discussion is not about loans, may Allah reward you. The discussion is about buying and selling.

The questioner : Fine. These items, all that are weighed and measured, require the exchange to take place.

The Shaykh : In a loan or in a sale?

Another questioner : No. In a sale. So, if I take grapes in exchange for gold, we must exchange them before the assembly is dispersed.

The Shaykh : But in the complete hadith, if the types differ, Likewise, in measuring and weighing, apples for apples. But if the types differ, sell as you wish.

Another questioner : On the condition that it is hand-to-hand. The hadith stipulated hand-to-hand.

The Shaykh : If they do not differ.

Another questioner : Fine. No, if they differ, it must be hand-to-hand, as the text of the hadith states.

The questioner : The monetary items and the measured items.

The Shaykh : Yes, that is right.

The questioner : Yes. Gold for gold, and silver. If the types differ, sell and buy as you wish, or however you wish, hand-to-hand. So the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) exempted us from the issue of bargaining, but he did not exempt us from the issue of hand-to-hand, even if the types differ.

The Shaykh : Yes, that is so.

Another questioner : And if I buy a kilo of grapes for a dinar, it is not permissible for him to record a dinar against me.

The Shaykh : It is not permissible for him to record a dinar against you.

Another questioner : Yes, because the exchange has not taken place. He must record it as either a kilo of grapes, or I must pay him a dinar.

The Shaykh : Well, this issue requires careful consideration. But what do you think? Since the Messenger (peace be upon him) stipulates this condition, then cancels a condition and says "likewise in measuring and weighing," it is not hidden from you that a Muslim should not rush to condemn a transaction that people have engaged in, unless the text is to the contrary.

Another questioner : No. We hear and obey.

The Shaykh : That is it. So, what is the solution in such a case?

Another questioner : Hearing and obeying.

The Shaykh : No. We need to say how the problem you raised is to be solved regarding everything that is measured and weighed?

Another questioner : That he records against me the specific quantity of the material I took, and does not record against me the quantity of the other material. That is, if I buy grapes, a kilo of grapes, and I want to buy them with gold or dinars, I must pay it in a hand-to-hand exchange. If I do not have money, I borrow from the grocer until the end of the month. He must record it as a kilo of grapes only. But at the end of the month, at whatever price, will he charge me for the kilo of grapes at the price of that day, as the jurists say, or at the price of the first day when I bought it? This is the problem that has puzzled us?

The Shaykh : Of course, the price is the price of the time when the sale was made.

Another questioner : If he records it against me as a guarantee, and in reality at the price of gold, we are in violation of the hadith.

The questioner : Shaykh, the hadith contains two matters.

The Shaykh : And so it is.

The questioner : The first is the monetary items, which are gold and silver, and the second matter is the measured items, such as grains, i.e., foods and the like. So, the exchange is required for the monetary items, i.e., gold for silver, the exchange is required if they differ. But the exchange between the price and the measured item is not required, and this is the forward sale (*salam*).

Another questioner : What did he exclude, excuse me, from the hadith?

The questioner : If these types differ, sell as you wish.

Another questioner : He mentioned salt with them, and mentioned wheat with them, and mentioned with them...

The questioner : These are the prices, may Allah reward you. The price, the price requires the exchange, the exchange.

Another questioner : The hadith, may Allah reward you, stipulates hand-to-hand for all types.

The questioner : Well, the hadith of *salam* is clear in Sahih al-Bukhari. The hadith of *salam* is that the people of Madinah used to make forward sales in fruits for one or two years. When the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came to Madinah, he said: So they would pay the price in advance and receive the goods later, or on credit. The hadith contains two matters: the first is the monetary items, and the second is the measured items. So, the difference in the price...

Another questioner : Excuse me, fine. You want to... excuse me, but we do not want to digress, and...The Shaykh : It is present.

The Shaykh : No, no, please proceed, because I told you the issue needs to be reconsidered. Yes.

Another questioner : If you exclude this action for those statements and we accept that, what excludes measuring for measuring? You have now excluded measuring for monetary items, but measuring for measuring remains, and monetary items for monetary items remain.

The questioner : Measuring for measuring, for example, wheat for barley, the exchange is not required in them.

Another questioner : May Allah forgive you, how? And the Messenger says hand-to-hand. We have agreed with you on that exclusion. You excluded one type, but what excluded measuring for measuring? What is the evidence for the exclusion?

The questioner : The measured item for the measured item, this requires that if it is of one type, it must be like for like and hand-to-hand.

Another questioner : Fine, my brother. We do not want to research this now. We agreed that... but the disagreement is on a specific point: measuring for measuring, monetary items for monetary items, and monetary items for measuring. You excluded it with the hadith of *salam*. We may now, in principle, accept this exclusion, but what do you exclude measuring for measuring with?

The questioner : Do you mean, for example, the same type or a different type, which is...

Another questioner : We do not return to that, because that is excluded, excluded from before.

The questioner : By Allah, I think, I think...

Another questioner : The hadith of 'Amr at the end... hand-to-hand for all these measured and weighed types. What puzzles me is that I recently researched a work by Ibn al-Qayyim. And strangely, what he said and what you mentioned now, he said, may Allah have mercy on him: "If people were to trade with currency and currency became something that is bought and sold among them, it would harm many people, and the financial market among people would be disrupted, and much poverty would occur." And therefore Islam prohibited it. What puzzles me is that he mentioned the disagreement of the jurists regarding the 'illah (operative cause), the price and the weight, etc.

The Shaykh : This is well known.

Another questioner : Then he did not mention...

The Shaykh : Regarding the fact that since the text came in the hadith, the matter is ended for weighing and measuring, and likewise measuring and weighing. This reality was a problem in my mind for a long time. When we came upon this addition, the problem ended. But in truth, regarding this specific detail, it requires a specific study.

Another questioner : Please, brothers.

The questioner : Where did we take this research from?

Another questioner : From *I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in*, Part Two. Very good.