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The
return to a form of trading and business transactions which
have blessing and spiritual benefit, along material gain,
is the most pressing issue of our time.
The reason is that all forms of oppression, destruction of
the natural resources of our planet and injustice between
poor and rich, all are ultimately based upon the rule of usury
and the dominant financial and economic ethos.
The return to a healthy and equitable way of conducting business
has many stages and implies the restoration of many lost institutions
and procedures which prevailed until the hegemony of the present
usurious institutions.
The most significant step in this progress will be the recovering
of a currency system of real money and the progressive abolition
of symbolic money printed in paper and fictitious currency
manipulated in speculative markets and gambling exchange markets.
The gold dinar and Silver dirham have been universally accepted
means of exchange for thousands of years and are beginning
to be recognised as the only way to return to sanity and fairness.
Simultaneously, the use of fully gold backed e-dinar in markets
where the physical gold and silver coins are also in circulation,
the formulas of investment for trading (qirad) shareholding
for production (shirkat) and the trusted forms of representation
with equitable profits (wakala and qafila) will accompany
the restoration of Islamic Trade.
The consequences of this process will be many, we will see
the creation of an Islamic Trade Bloc with a common currency,
The Islamic Gold Dinar and Silver Dirham. Then, the reunification
of the Muslim Ummah, the reshaping of the power balance in
the world, the end of the dollar supremacy and the end of
oligarchies of millionaires and billionaires, in favour of
the poor and progress which will benefit the people, not the
corporations.
We
want to make a contribution and be part of this unstoppable
historic change by having always a relevant news and interesting
articles, documents and research on the subject.
History
of the Dinar and Dirham
In
the beginning the Muslims used gold and silver by weight and
the dinar and dirhams that they used were made by the Persians.
The first dated coins that can be assigned to the Muslims
are copies of silver dirhams of the Sassanian Yezdigird III,
struck during the Khalifate of Uthman, radiy'allahu anhu.
These coins differ from the original ones in that an Arabic
inscription is found in the obverse margins, normally reading
"in the Name of Allah". Since then the writing in
Arabic of the Name of Allah and parts of Qur'an on the coins
became a custom in all mintings made by Muslims.
Under what was known as the coin standard of the Khalif Umar
Ibn al-Khattab, the weight of 10 dirhams was equivalent to
7 dinars (mithqals)
In the year 75 (695 CE) the Khalifah Abdalmalik ordered Al-Hajjaj
to mint the first dirhams, thus he established officially
the standard of Umar Ibn al-Khattab. In the next year he ordered
the dirhams to be minted in all the regions of the Dar al-Islam.
He ordered that the coins be stamped with the sentence: "Allah
is Unique, Allah is Eternal". He ordered the removal
of human figures and animals from the coins and that they
be replaced with letters.
This command was then carried on throughout all the history
of Islam. The dinar and the dirham were both round, and the
writing was stamped in concentric circles. Typically on one
side it was written the "tahlil" and the "tahmid",
that is, "la ilaha ill'Allah" and "alhamdulillah";
and on the other side was written the name of the Amir and
the date. Later on it became common to introduce the blessings
on the Prophet, salla'llahu alayhi wa sallam, and sometimes,
ayats of the Qur'an.
Gold and silver coins remained official currency until the
fall of the Khalifate. Since then, dozens of different paper
currencies were made in each of the new postcolonial national
states created from the dismemberment of Dar al-Islam.
Allah says in the Qur'an:
And amongst the People of the Book there are those who,
if you were to entrust them with a treasure (qintar), he would
return it to you. And amongst them is he who, if you were
to entrust him with a dinar would not return it to you, unless
you kept standing over him. Qur'an (3,75)
Qadi Abu Bakr Ibn al-Arabi, the greatest authority on Qur'anic
Law wrote in his famous "Ahkam al-Qur'an" about
this ayat:
"The benefit that can be taken from this is the prohibition
of entrusting the People of the Book with goods".
Qadi Abu Bakr said: "The question concerning entrusting
property is legislated by the text of Qur'an." This means
that the ayat is a legal judgement of absolute validity and
of the greatest importance to the deen.
Entrusting wealth to non-Muslims is not allowed, but furthermore,
taking a non-Muslim as a partner outside Dar al-Islam (where
we stand over them) is extremely restricted, because they
might cheat or might use our wealth in forbidden transactions.
Since paper-money is a promise of payment, can it be permitted
to trust the issuers while they hold the payment (our property)
outside our jurisdiction? History has also demonstrated repeatedly
that paper money has been a permanent instrument of default
and cheating the Muslims. In addition, Islamic Law does not
permit the use of a promise of payment as a medium of exchange.
What
are the Dinar and Dirham
 
The Islamic Dinar
is a specific weight
of 22k gold equivalent to
4.25 grammes. |
The Islamic Dirham
is a specific weight
of pure silver equivalent to
3.0 grammes. |
According
to Islamic Law...
The
Islamic Dinar is a specific weight of 22k gold (917.)
equivalent to 4.25 grams.
The Islamic Dirham is a specific weight of pure silver
equivalent to 3.0 grams.
Umar Ibn al-Khattab established the known standard relationship
between them based on their weights: "7 dinars must be
equivalent to 10 dirhams."
"The Revelation undertook to mention them and
attached many judgements to them, for example zakat, marriage,
and hudud, etc., therefore within the Revelation they
have to have a reality and specific measure for assessment
[of zakat, etc.] upon which its judgements may be based rather
than on the non-shari'i [other coins].
Know that there is consensus [ijma] since the beginning of
Islam and the age of the Companions and the Followers that
the dirham of the shari'ah is that of which ten weigh seven
mithqals [weight of the dinar] of gold. . . The weight of
a mithqal of gold is seventy-two grains of barley,
so that the dirham which is seven-tenths of it is fifty and
two-fifths grains. All these measurements are firmly established
by consensus." Ibn Khaldun, Al-Muqaddimah
How are the Islamic dinar used?
1.- The Islamic Dinar can be used to save because they
are wealth in themselves.
2.- They are used to pay zakat and dowry as
they are requisite within Islamic Law.
3.- They are used to buy and sell since they are a
legitimate medium of exchange.
Uses
of the Dinar and Dirham
Gold
and silver are the most stable currency the world has ever
seen
From the beginning of Islam until today, the value of the
Islamic bimetallic currency has remained surprisingly stable
in relation to basic consumable goods:
A chicken at the time of the Prophet, salla'llahu alaihi wa
sallam, cost one dirham; today, 1,400 years later, a chicken
costs approximately one dirham.
In 1,400 years inflation is zero.
Could we say the same about the dollar or any other paper
currency in the last 25 years?
In the long term the bimetallic currency has proved to be
the most stable currency the world has ever seen. It has survived,
despite all the attempts by governments to transform it into
a symbolic currency by imposing a nominal value different
from its weight.
Reliability
Gold cannot be inflated by printing more of it; it
cannot be devalued by government decree, and unlike paper
currency it is an asset which does not depend upon anybody's
promise to pay.
Portability and anonymity of gold are both important, but
the most significant fact is that gold is an asset that is
no-one else´s liability.
All forms of paper assets: bonds, shares, and even bank deposits,
are promises to repay money borrowed. Their value is dependent
upon the investor's belief that the promise will be fulfilled.
As junk bonds and the Mexican peso have illustrated, a questionable
promise soon loses value.
Gold is not like this. A piece of gold is independent of
the financial system, and its worth is underwritten by
5,000 years of human experience.
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