Money is the standard by which we measure the benefit found in the commodity and in the effort i.e. goods and services. Therefore, money is defined as being the medium by which all goods and services are measured. Hence the price of a commodity and the wage of a worker for instance, each represents the society’s estimate of the value of that commodity and the effort of that worker. Bonds, shares and the like are not considered money.

This estimation of the value of goods and services is, in all countries, expressed by units. These units become the measure by which the benefit obtained from a commodity and the benefit obtained from a service is measured. These units would act as a medium of exchange, and these units are money.

When Islam decreed the rules of trading and hiring, it did not determine any specific item with which the exchange of goods, services and benefits had to be compulsorily conducted. Islam has rather given the human being the choice to conduct the transactions of exchange with whatever medium He chooses, as long as mutual consent prevailed in the exchange. It is, therefore permitted for a man to marry a woman by teaching her the Qur’an, just as it is permitted for a person to buy a commodity by working for its owner for a day, or to work for someone for a day in exchange for a certain amount of dates etc. The exchange could therefore be conducted with whatever people wished. However, when it comes to exchanging a commodity with a specific monetary unit, Islam has guided us to the monetary unit by which the exchange is to take place. It has restricted the Muslims to a specific type of money, which is gold and silver. Islam has not left it to society to express its own estimation of the measure of benefit drawn out of goods or services, by either fixed or variable monetary units, which society could manage as it wished. Islam has rather specified these monetary units by which society expresses the values i.e. the prices of goods and services.

This specification could be deduced from several matters and these are as follows:

1. When Islam prohibited the hoarding of wealth, it specifically prohibited the hoarding of gold and silver despite the fact that wealth includes any property that can be owned. Wheat for instance is a type of wealth, so are dates and money. However, hoarding is reflected in money, not in the goods and services. The prohibition in the verse refers to the hoarding of money, for it acts as the generally accepted medium of exchange, and because the hoarding of money is the matter that produces the effect of the prohibition i.e. restricting circulation. As for other commodities, their accumulation would not be known as Kanz, (hoarding), but as Ihtikar (monopoly). Hence the verse which prohibits the hoarding of gold and silver in fact refers to the hoarding of money. The verse has specified the money which Allah (swt) has prohibited us to hoard which is gold and silver. Allah (swt) says:

“And those who hoard gold and silver and do not spend them in the way of Allah, let them know that a severe punishment is awaiting them” [At-Tauba: 34]

Therefore, prohibition is focused upon the monetary medium of exchange, thus the hoarding of gold and silver is forbidden, whether it was minted or not.

2. Islam has linked gold and silver to a set of fixed rules. Hence, when it imposed the Diyyah i.e. blood money, it specified a fixed amount of gold. Also, when it decreed the penalty of cutting the hand of the thief, it specified the minimum value of gold that is stolen which would entail the cutting of the hand. In his letter to the people of the Yemen, the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) was reported by An-Nisai on the authority of Amru Ibn Hazm to have said: “The blood money for one soul would be 100 camels...and for those who deal in gold it would be 1000 dinars.” Bukhari also reported on the authority of Aisha (ra) that the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) also said: “The hand is cut for the theft of one-quarter dinar and upward.” Therefore, this fixing of certain rules by the Dinar, the dirham and the Mithqal, would make the Dinar with its weight in gold, and the dirham with its weight in silver, a monetary unit by which the values of goods and services are measured. This monetary unit would be the money, which is the basis of the currency. Therefore, the fact that Islam has linked the Shari’ah rules to gold and silver by text, when these rules are related to money, serves as evidence that the currency is solely restricted to gold and silver.

3. The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) has determined that gold and silver be used as money, and exclusively made them the monetary measure to evaluate goods and services, and ensured that all transactions be conducted with them as their basis. He (pbuh) also established the units of this money, which are the ounce, Dirham, Daniq (equal to 1/6 Dirham), Carat, Mithqal and Dinar. These units were well known and widespread during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) and they were widely used by all people. It has also been established that the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) approved of them. All trade and marriage transactions were conducted in gold and silver, in their quality as money, and this has been established in the Sahih Ahadith. The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) has determined the weight of gold and silver with a specific weight, which was the weight of the people of Makkah. Abu Dawud and An-Nisai reported on the authority of Ibn Umar that the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said: “The weight should be that of the people of Makkah.” When reviewing the monetary weights in Islam, we would conclude that the legal ounce would equal 40 Dirhams, the dirham would be 6 Daniqs, the Dinar would equal 24 Carats and every 10 Dirhams would equal 7 Mithqals. The weights of Madinah were established according to this order.

4.When Allah (swt) decreed the Zakat of money, He (swt) made it obligatory in gold and silver, and He (swt) determined a Nisab for the Zakat in gold and silver. Therefore, to consider the Zakat of money as being gold and silver would establish the money as being gold and silver.

5. The rules of exchange listed under the monetary transactions only, have come in gold and silver alone. Also, all the financial transactions mentioned in Islam were reported to have been conducted in gold and silver. Exchange is the trading of one currency for another. It would be either trading of one currency with the same type, or trading of one currency for another type. In other words, exchange would be the swapping of one currency for another. The fact that Shar’a has determined the exchange, which is purely a financial transaction, linked to nothing else but money by gold and silver serves as a clear evidence that money should be in gold and silver and nothing else. At-Tirmidhi reported that the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said: “Trade gold for silver as you wish, but hand to hand (without delay).” Bukhari also reported that the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said: “Gold for silver would be Riba, unless it was hand to hand (without delay).”

Therefore, money is considered one of the issues which Islam has laid down rules for and is not an issue subject to opinion and consultation, nor subject to the requirements of economic and financial life. The attribute of money as a specific type and unit of currency, is rather determined by a Shari’ah rule. If one were to ponder over the above mentioned five points, one would find a host of Shariah rules has been related and linked to the money in Islam. Therefore, the prohibition of its hoarding, the obligation of Zakat on it, the decreeing of the rule of exchange for it, the approval of the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) of dealing with it, the linking of the Diyyah (blood money) and the cutting of the hand in theft to it makes the opinion in such a matter subject to the Shari’ah text only. The fact that Shar’a has expressed through rules which are related exclusively to money in gold and silver, or are linked to it, serves as a clear evidence that the currency should be gold and silver, or based on gold and silver. Therefore, the type of currency determined by the Shari’ah rules must be adhered to. Thus, money in Islam should be gold and silver.

However, to exclusively determine gold and silver as money would not necessarily mean that it would be forbidden to conduct any exchange in other than gold and silver. The issue of currency in this regard would be other than that of exchange, it would rather be the issue of adopting a currency. Therefore, despite the fact that it would be permitted for people to exchange in anything they wished, the monetary measure for exchange and for anything other than exchange must be in gold and silver, for money in Islam is gold and silver.

The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) made various types of gold and silver as money, regardless of whether these were minted or not. He (pbuh) did not mint a specific money, with specific and fixed features, rather the units of gold and silver were Roman and Persian coins, both small and large coins along with silver coins which were neither minted nor engraved, as well as Yemeni coins. All of these coins were in use widely without exception. However, these coins were not considered by their number or whether they were engraved or not; they were only considered according to their weight. The piece of gold could be the size of an egg, and people would still deal with it. Thus, the definiition was by specifying gold and silver and specifying the weight for each of them. Therefore, the rights of Allah (swt) such as Zakat, the rights of the people such as debts, as well as the prices of goods and services, were related to Dirhams and Dinars i.e. to gold and silver, evaluated by weight.

This State of affairs continued throughout the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah (pbuh), that of the four Khulafaa Al-Rashideen, and the beginning of the era of Bani Umayyah, until the arrival of Abdulmalik Ibn Marwan, who deemed it appropriate to transform all the gold and silver that was in use at the time, minted and non minted alike, into an Islamic coinage and inscription, and gave it a standard and invariable weight, thus doing away with the need to make reference to their weight. So, He collected the largest and the smallest of coins and minted them according to the weight of Makkah. Abdulmalik minted the Dirhams in silver and the Dinars in gold in the year 75 AH, and ever since that time, Islamic minted Dirhams and Dinars were in circulation i.e. the currency of the Islamic State became distinguished, having the same invariable feature. Therefore, the basis of the monetary standard in Islam was gold and silver. As for size, coinage, form and inscription, these are all part of the style. Therefore, the words of gold and silver, when mentioned in the Shari’ah terminology and evaluation, would apply to two matters: The money which is in circulation, whether it is copper or paper money as long as it has an equivalent (from gold and silver), and the two metals of gold and silver. Any money that is from gold or silver, would thus be considered, and any paper or copper money or the like, which could be transferred into gold or silver would also be considered.