What IFG will do to help bring about a truly Islamic economy
05 January 2024 8 min read
3 min read
Published:
Updated:
Ibrahim Khan
Co-founder
Cryptocurrency is a new type of investment class and scholars are still grappling with the topic. There is a sharp divide in terms of views on the subject right now.
We have created a detailed Cryptocurrency Guide for a Muslim investor here, but in this article we wanted to share a list of some senior scholars who are against cryptocurrency as well as some who are for it.
Please note that a lot of the fatawa relate to bitcoin – not necessarily all cryptocurrencies – however the analysis will be similar for many cryptocurrencies.
Also, some fatawa are from 2-3 years ago, during which time things have developed enormously in the crypto industry, and as such the scholars may have a different view reassessing today.
If there has been a loss or a theft there is almost nothing that can be done to recover the amount – which is very different to if your normal currency was misplaced by a bank for example.
The mufti also noted that bitcoin is often used by criminal and nefarious elements to fund their work too due to the untraceable nature of the cryptocurrency.
The Shaykh also concludes that by implication bitcoin mining is also impermissible as it is creating money from nothing.
For views of even more scholars and their analysis please refer to our Fatwa Forum thread on Bitcoin here. For our views on the topic see this article.
[1] https://islamicbankers.files.wordpress.com/2019/02/2017-shariah-analysis-of-bitcoin-cryptocurrency-blockchain.pdf
05 January 2024 8 min read
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