Das Kalifat (Kalifatsstaat), die Verfassung, Artikel 166: Der Staat gibt eine eigene, unabhängige Währung heraus, die an keine fremde Währung gebunden sein darf.

 

Article 166: The State issues its own independent currency, and it is not permitted for it to be linked to any foreign currency.

The evidence for the first half of this article is the evidence that gave the Imam the right to manage the affairs with the words of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم:

«الإِمَامُ رَاعٍ»

“The Imam is a guardian” (reported by Al-Bukhari from ‘Abd Allah Bin Umar), and organising the permitted issues is from the management of the affairs. To create a specific currency for the State is from the permitted issues, so it is permitted for the State to create a specific currency, and in the same way it is permitted for the State not to do so. The Messenger صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم did not create a specific currency based upon specific consistent characteristics, and in his صلى الله عليه وآله وسلمtime the State did not have its own currency, and the situation remained the same throughout his time and the time of the righteous guided Khulafaa’ after him, and during the beginning of the Ummayad period up until the time of ‘Abd alMalik b. Marwan who decided to change everything from the gold and silver that was being used, whether minted or not, to the currency with an Islamic minting and of equal weight without any disparity. Consequently, he minted Dirhams from silver and Dinars from gold, and from that time the Islamic Dinars and Dirhams were minted whereas they were not known before then. So to issue a currency is permitted and is not obligatory upon the State, unless safeguarding the economy of the land from ruin and protecting it from its enemies required the issuing of a currency, at which point its issuance would be obligatory, in accordance with the Shari’ah principle: “That, without which the obligation cannot be accomplished, is itself an obligation.

As for the second part of the article, the evidence for its forbiddance is that it would make the State follow whichever disbelieving state it links its currency too, as was the scenario when Iraq used to be linked to Sterling, and over and above that it would be at the mercy of that disbelieving state from the financial angle. Both of these issues are forbidden, and the Shari’ah principle states that: “The means to something forbidden is also forbidden, and so to link the currency of the Islamic State to a foreign State is forbidden.