Buying and Selling Banknotes (book)
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| Book Information | |
|---|---|
| Author | Ahmad Ali Yousefi |
| Style | Analytical |
| Language | Persian |
| Volumes | 1 |
| Pages | 216 |
| اطلاعات نشر | |
| Publisher | Publications Organization of the Research Institute for Islamic Culture and Thought |
- Abstract
Buying and Selling Banknotes is a book in the field of Economic Jurisprudence, written by Ahmad Ali Yousefi, with the aim of solving the problem of interest on loans in Islamic banking. In this work, Yousefi examines the reasons for the prohibition and permissibility of the buying and selling of banknotes in seven chapters. He considers banknotes to be customary property (*mal 'urfi*) and believes that the criterion for the validity of a sale (*bay'*) is custom, not a specific religious definition.
To examine the prohibition of selling banknotes, he reviews three viewpoints (the non-realization of a customary sale, the non-observance of currency exchange rules in banknote transactions, and the prohibition of selling banknotes on credit). He finds some of these to be in line with his own view. He then critiques the theory of the permissibility of selling banknotes and responds to its arguments.
In presenting his own preferred view, Yousefi considers the sale of banknotes to be valid only if the price (*thaman*) and the object of sale (*muthman*) are customarily different and have utility. In his opinion, in cases where the price and the object of sale have no difference, such a transaction is not permissible because it either lacks a rational motive or is an instance of a usurious trick (*hilah ribawiyyah*). He believes that, given that rulings follow real interests and corruptions, usurious tricks that contradict the Lawgiver's purpose for the legitimacy of the ruling are not valid.
Brief Introduction
- Buying and Selling Banknotes*, authored by Ahmad Ali Yousefi, a professor in the Islamic Economics department at the Research Center for Islamic Systems, is in the field of economic jurisprudence. The books The Nature of Money and Its Jurisprudential and Economic Strategies and A Jurisprudential Study of Compensation for the Decline in the Value of Money are among the author's other works in the field of economic jurisprudence.
The book *Buying and Selling Banknotes* was written with the aim of examining a solution to escape usury in interest-bearing loans and in Islamic banking, based on permitting the sale of banknotes (p. 12, and pp. 20-21). This book has 216 pages and was first published in 1389 SH by the Research Institute for Islamic Culture and Thought.
Structure of the Book
The book's discussions are organized into seven chapters. The table of contents and introduction are at the beginning, and the bibliography and indexes are at the end. The author dedicates the first chapter to generalities and, in four sections, examines the types of subjects and methods of identifying them, the evolution of money, the characteristics of banknotes, and money in the era of legislation (pp. 31-48). Due to the connection between the sale of banknotes and issues of sale (*bay'*), the author defines sale in the second chapter and explains the conditions of the contract, the contracting parties, the two exchanged items, and also the types of sale (pp. 49-87). Discussions on usury in trade and usury tricks are presented in the third and fourth chapters (pp. 89-116). In the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters, which are the most important parts of the book, the author examines the views of proponents and opponents of the sale of banknotes, and then explains his own theory (pp. 117-168).
The Status of Banknotes as Property and the Customary Reality of Sale
Considering the functions of money and the characteristics of property, the author unequivocally classifies banknotes as property, introducing them as a modern phenomenon (pp. 45-48). According to the author, all jurists consider sale (*bay'*) to have a customary reality, not a religious one; therefore, the criterion for identifying a sale is custom, and it must be examined which exchanges are considered instances of sale from a customary perspective. Therefore, if a jurist considers a specific type of exchange of property for property to be a sale, but custom does not perceive it as such, the customary view takes precedence (pp. 72-73). In the discussion of currency exchange (*bay' al-sarf*), although the author considers the mutual taking of possession of the price and the object of sale in the session of the contract to be a condition for the validity of the sale, in his opinion, this condition only applies to the buying and selling of dirhams and dinars and does not include banknotes (pp. 85-86).
Permissibility of Usury Tricks and Usury in Trade of Counted Items
One of the influential aspects in the jurisprudential issue of selling banknotes is the answer to the question of whether usury in trade also applies to items other than those sold by measure and weight. In the third chapter, after examining this issue, the author concludes that usury in trade only applies to measured and weighed items. He believes that the criterion for the prohibition of usury in trade is not clear, and banknotes are among items sold by count (*ma'dudat*), not measure or weight. According to numerous narrations, usury in trade involving counted items is only reprehensible (*makruh*) and not forbidden (*haram*) (pp. 91-100).
After examining several narrations on the topic of usury tricks, although Yousefi considers these tricks to be permissible in principle, he sees the main problem as providing a correct definition of a trick (*hilah*) (p. 105). After examining the meaning of a trick in linguistics and religious texts, as well as the words of jurists on this subject, he defines a trick as performing an act or a contract whose goal is to change the religious ruling of a case by changing its religious title, in such a way that if this action is not taken, the original ruling of that case would remain. In his opinion, permitting a trick has three conditions: 1. The trick itself must be permissible, 2. Its goal must be a permissible matter, 3. The trick must not contradict the Lawgiver's purpose for the legitimacy of the ruling (pp. 114-115).
Review of the Views of Opponents to the Sale of Banknotes
In the fifth chapter, the author divides the opponents of the sale of banknotes into three groups:
Group One: The Sale of Banknotes Does Not Correspond to a Customary Sale
A group of jurists do not consider the buying and selling of banknotes to be an instance of sale from a customary perspective. The author cites statements from Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr, Naser Makarem Shirazi, and Morteza Motahhari to explain this argument. According to Shahid al-Sadr, in all cases where the property is fungible (*mithli*)—even if that property is of the counted type—a credit exchange of it with an addition is not permissible and is considered an instance of forbidden interest-bearing loan. Yousefi, while endorsing Shahid al-Sadr's view, postpones his own arguments to later chapters (pp. 118-120).
Makarem Shirazi believes that there is no serious intent regarding the sale of banknotes because, in the custom of transactions, banknotes always function as the price (*thaman*), not the object of sale (*muthman*). Yousefi rejects this argument, considering the pillars of sale to be present in the sale of banknotes and finding serious intent for such a transaction to be possible (pp. 120-122). Morteza Motahhari has also considered the sale of banknotes to be non-customary by stating that in the exchange of two items of the same kind, a sale is not realized. However, the author believes that, according to narrations, the sale of two items of the same kind is reprehensible, not forbidden (pp. 122-124).
Group Two: The Impermissibility of Selling Banknotes
Another group of jurists, although they consider the cash sale of banknotes to be an instance of sale from a customary perspective, believe that such a transaction is not religiously permissible because the sale of banknotes is an instance of currency exchange (*bay' al-sarf*), while the rules of currency exchange are not observed in it. The author attributes this view to some Shia jurists and the majority of Sunni jurists. Regarding the application of the rules of currency exchange to the sale of banknotes, it has been said that banknotes, either independently or by virtue of being a document and representative of gold and silver, are considered a standard for determining the value of goods, just like dirhams and dinars, and the rules of currency exchange apply to them.
Yousefi finds the argument of this group to have two flaws: 1. It is not clear that the application of the rules of currency exchange is solely because dirhams and dinars are a standard for the value of goods; 2. Although banknotes were once a document and representative of gold and silver, this is not the case at present; rather, they are independent property and, in terms of their instance, a modern phenomenon (pp. 125-135).
Group Three: The Impermissibility of Selling Banknotes on Credit
According to the third view, although the sale of banknotes is an instance of sale, selling them on credit is forbidden because it is an instance of a trick for an interest-bearing loan and entails a violation of the Lawgiver's purpose in prohibiting usury. The author places the views of Sayyid Ruhollah Mousavi Khomeini and Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei in this third group. Yousefi endorses this view and believes that, given that rulings follow real interests and corruptions, the correctness of this view becomes clear (pp. 135-138).
Arguments of Proponents of Selling Banknotes and Their Critique
According to the author's report in the sixth chapter, the jurists who consider the sale of banknotes to be valid have reached this conclusion through three premises:
- The transaction of banknotes, both cash and credit, is customarily an instance of sale;
- Any transaction that is customarily an instance of sale is religiously approved if there is no religious impediment (such as uncertainty (*gharar*), harm (*darar*), and usury (*riba*));
- The transaction of banknotes (both cash and credit) has no religious impediment; therefore, the sale of banknotes is approved by the Lawgiver.
The author considers the second proposition to be undoubtedly correct but finds the first and third propositions to be open to criticism. According to Yousefi, custom and rational people only engage in buying and selling if the price and the object of sale are different and their utilities differ. However, in the transaction of banknotes where the price and the object of sale have no difference, a sale does not occur from the perspective of custom and rational people. The author also deems the third proposition incorrect and believes that in the sale of banknotes used as a religious trick, a religious impediment does exist (pp. 152-153).
Preferred View: The Impermissibility of Selling Similar Banknotes
In the final chapter of the book, the author examines the issue from the perspective of the presence or absence of a customary difference between the price and the object of sale and states the ruling for each. In his view, if the banknotes being bought and sold are customarily different, such that their difference leads to a difference in their value or a difference in their utility, then the pillars of the sale contract are complete, and such a transaction, whether in cash or on credit, is considered customarily valid and devoid of any religious impediment. However, if the banknotes acting as price and object of sale do not have a customary difference and a difference in utility, then custom and rational people do not engage in their cash sale because there is no motive for such a transaction. But if this transaction is done on credit, then although such an act is a sale in appearance, in the view of custom, this transaction is considered the same as a forbidden interest-bearing loan and is a type of usurious trick that is religiously prohibited (p. 168).