What is the ruling on currency exchange shops and the sale of currency?

The questioner : The questioner asks here: What is the ruling on currency exchange shops and the sale of currency?

The Shaykh : We do not advise a Muslim to become a currency exchanger for two reasons. The first is that one who wants to be a currency exchanger must be a jurist regarding what is permissible and what is not permissible in currency exchange. Today, currency exchangers are as far removed from jurisprudence as possible, especially regarding their profession. The second reason is the difficulty of being able to adhere to the rulings of the Shari'ah in currency exchange. This is because, in the past, currency exchange revolved around metallic coins, which did not exceed three metals: gold, silver, and copper. There are known rulings in the Sunnah that gold is not permissible to sell except like for like, hand to hand, and likewise silver, hand to hand. "Hand to hand" means cash, and "like for like" means no difference in amount. However, it is permissible for you to buy gold with silver and silver with gold with a difference in amount. Likewise, for coins that are neither gold nor silver but are copper, it is permissible to have a difference in amount between the first two metals on one hand and the third, which is copper, on the other hand. Today, these two precious metals, gold and silver, are not in the market; rather, what is in the market is paper currency, not metallic currency. This paper currency, as you see today, is like gambling in its rise and fall, its increase and decrease. This exposes people who trade in currency to speculation, indeed to risk, indeed to gambling. Many of these people have often been struck by great wealth between one evening and the next, or by extreme poverty between one evening and the next. Islam, and this is a long study with no room to delve into it now, we only advise that currency exchange is not a prescribed profession. As for the general public, we do not advise them to exchange their local currency except for a pressing, necessary need that is unavoidable, such as when a person travels from one country to another, in which case he must exchange his currency for the currency of that country. As for buying a certain currency, waiting for it to become expensive and rise, and the like, and then perhaps being struck by the opposite of what you initially imagined, this is a losing trade in terms of the Shari'ah, even if it is sometimes profitable in material terms.