What is the correct method for trading currencies?

Question:
A questioner asks about the ruling on trading currencies: the dollar, the lira, or the yen that we see in banks, and to which individuals resort to seek earnings and achieve profit, but in which the exchange of possession does not take place. Is this valid, since all of this is done only on paper?

Answer:
This fatwa has been asked about frequently in the past and in recent times, but in these days the question is even more common.
The correct position is that it is not permissible except hand-to-hand: one takes the currency he wants and pays the currency he has, hand-to-hand, then he keeps it with him or deposits it with whomever he wishes until he sells it. As for taking only a paper, a group of scholars have forbidden this, and some have been lenient in this matter, but what appears is that one should not be lenient in this, rather he should take it hand-to-hand or leave it, because a check is more like a document and more like a debt. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the authentic hadith: When he mentioned gold, silver, wheat, barley, dates, and others, he said: .
And so it is with currencies: the dollar, the pound, the riyal, the yen, and others. If they differ, it is obligatory that the exchange be hand-to-hand, whether yens, pounds, dollars, dinars, or anything else. The obligation is hand-to-hand, then he may deposit it if he wishes. As for writing a check, the safest and obligatory course is to leave it, because there is nothing that necessitates establishing it in the place of currencies. And success is from Allah.