WHAT IS THE ISLAMIC DINAR AND DIRHAM?

According to Islamic Law...
The Islamic Dinar is a specific weight of gold equivalent to 4.3
grammes.
The Islamic Dirham is a specific weight of silver equivalent to
3.0 grammes.

Umar Ibn al-Khattab established the known standard relationship
between them based on their weights: "7 dinars must be
equivalent to 10 dirhams.

"How can I use them?
1.- I can save them because they are wealth in themselves.
2.- I can pay zakat and dowry as they are requisite within Islamic
Law.
3.- I can buy and sell with them since they are a legitimate
medium of exchange.

THE QUESTION OF PAPER MONEY

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.

THE HISTORY OF THE ISLAMIC 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 Sasanian Yezdigird
III, struck during the Khalifate of Uthman, radiallahu 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 Khalif Abdalmalik ordered Al-
Haddjadj 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. 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 post-colonial national states created from the
dismemberment of Dar al-Islam. 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 illah 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, salallahu alayhi wa salem, and
sometimes, ayats of the Qur'an.

THE ISLAMIC DINAR. Introduction.

I would like to introduce you to some general ideas and
guidelines to the very important issue concerning all the
Muslims today, which is the abandonment of Riba.

Allah, subhana wa ta'ala, says in Qur'an: "wa hallal allahul
bai'a wa harramul riba"; which means: "Allah has permitted
trade and forbidden usury (Riba)". Also Allah says in the
Qur'an: "ia yuha alladhina 'amanu uttaqu Allaha wa dharu ma
baqiya mina riba, ina kubtum muminin. Fain lam taf'alum,
fadhadhu biharbin mina Allahi wa Rasulih", which means, "O
you who believe! Fear Allah and give up what remains of your
demand for usury, if you are indeed believers. If you do not,
take notice of war from Allah and His Messenger".

The issue of the dinar relates to the prohibition of Riba, the
chronic economic paralysis of Muslim countries, to the
destruction of the Khalifate, the unity of the Ummah under one
currency and what is most important the restoration of the
fundamental pillar of zakat. This is to say, the issues that matter
to the people who want to see a Dar al-Islam and the Khalifate
restored again, and among this people the sufies, who care
nothing except Allah, are in the first line.

The magnitude and the importance of this issue comes before
other, often over-stretched, minor matters. If a tiger is about to
devour you, you do not entertain yourself with a mosquito.

The enemies of the Islamic Dinar are the enemies of the
Sunnah of Rasul, salallahu alaihy wa salaam. They have to
denounce the practice of the Sahaba and the practice of the
Ummah for all the centuries since the beginning until the fall of
the Khalifate. They have tried in the past to convince all of us
that the Banks were halal (like Muhammad Abdou and his
followers did). Then they came with the Islamic Bank, which is
like Islamic whisky. But as the fallacy of Islamic Banking, was
openly revealed (by the Sufies) and as their practices have
became known as fraudulent and usurious (in Islamic Law)
despite their deceitful use of Islamic terminology (such as
qirad, shirkat, kira, etc.), they have tried to content everybody
with the cynical idea of "being practical in a sinful world".
They have justified the use of paper money, even in Muslim
countries, with false doctrines and meditated silence. While the
Muslims all over the world are still today being cheated and
robbed by a monetary system totally unjust, deceitful and
contrary to Islamic practices, based banking paper-money, a
methodical cover of puritanical and esoteric doctrines borrowed
from decaying Christianity and a noisy silence over the
important issues was spread with scientific precision,
sometimes using false 'alims and false sufies, to keep the
Muslims busy by a self-inflicted sense of guilt (a doctrine of
'your iman is not good enough') and trivial matters of no
importance, or its opposite reaction, a fanatical radicalism
deprived of real aims.

Apart from the very ignorant who still believe that Islamic
Banking is Islamic or believe that paper money is modern and
wonderful to people, is there any justification to remain
passive, silent in a kind of dispassionate helplessness, on this
well known subject? The answer must be an emphatic NO. We
cannot let the helplessness of few lifeless people contaminate
our spirit. We should not accept those who say: "I believe in it,
but it cannot be done or it cannot be done today. We are waiting
[for a signal]". They are ignorant about the nature of the deen.
Leave these people alone. Keep the company of the Sufies that
are going ahead. This are people whose carelessness about the
world let them see through. And where other are suspended in
sea of impossibilities and doubts, the Sufies will show you the
easy way to victory. As sufies, we undertake the obligations of
all the Muslims in our hearts and deal with them as if they were
ours. We cannot be bother with our ego. That is why we
simply forget it.

Sufies believe, out of their taqwa, that we are responsible for
everything without excuse. Yet, they know that they are
incapable for such task, out of their own dependence of Him.
But they know and act accordingly, that Allah is capable. And
by His Power, out of their hope in Him, they can achieve their
obligations and show others how to do it.

We will fulfil our duties by the authority of Allah, subhana wa
ta'ala. We do not fear the state, or the banking system, or
anything else. We, only fear Allah. Our path is a path of
showing easiness towards Allah; of showing the Muslims that
by Allah, and by our obedience to Him, that is what we call by
"giving up", we become in charge of our affairs. I recall the
title of the book of the great wali of Allah and Shaykh of our
tariqa Shaykh Ahmad Ibn Ataillah, may Allah be pleased with
him, "The Book of illumination on the Giving Up of the
Management of Affairs". The title is enough. It also reminds
me of what Allah says in the Qur'an in Surat al-Layla:

"fa amma man a'ata wa attaqa wa saddaqa bil husna,
fasanuiassiruhu lil iusra
wa amma man bakhila wa astaghna wa kadhdhaba bil husna,
fasanuiassiruhu lil 'usra".

which means,

"if you give sadaqa and fear Allah and you believe in the
Goodness [of Allah], we will facilitate your way to easiness.
But if you are mean and [you think] you are self-sufficient [from
Allah] and you do not believe in the Goodness [of Allah], we
will facilitate your way to difficulty.

The path of tasawwuf is a path of easiness. This is opposite of
the people whose path and teaching are full of doubts, hidden
meanings, waiting for the Mahdi and unknown mysteries. Our
path is certainty and increase of certainty.

We firmly believe "la hawla wa la quwatta illah billah". There
is no two powers, but only The One. Kufr and the kaffirs have
no power. Their illusion of power depends on us, the Muslims,
in as much as we are not fulfilling our duties. The power of
Muslims is borrowed from Allah, by His Will, as we obey and
submit to Him. Kaffirs are to us, just like flies are to people.
They are there to keep us clean. But if we are dirty they become
a bother to us. So the issue is really in our hands without
excuse.

You should nevertheless, be aware that there are non-Muslim
and some Muslims that when they hear that the [other] Muslims
are introducing the Islamic dinar as their medium of exchange,
they will twist in themselves in real agony, as they rightly fear
that their petty worries and trivial fantasies are being blown
apart by the real imperatives and force of a Resurgent Islam.
But don't worry, it will be very easy to identify them, because
their agony will show in their passivity and lack of interest for
what is happening. This is because, as Shaykh Darqawi, may
Allah be pleased with him, told us, they are dead.

The present Prime Minister of Turkey, may Allah bless all the
Turkish people and through their resurgence give us a Khalifa,
His Excellency Dr. Necmettin Erbakan has brought the matter
of the Islamic Dinar to the frontline of the Islamic discourse to a
point of no-return. He has pledged the will and commitment of
the Muslims of Turkey to the establishment of the Islamic Dinar
as the currency of an Economic Union of Muslim Countries.
He astonished many people, who had looked with contempt
and dismissive condescending what the sufies have been saying
and struggling for for a long time. Many, who had pledged
themselves to the folly of Islamic Banking and the nonsense of
what they call Islamic Economics, have, with their paralysed
silence, shown us that they do not know how to react to it.
They are now out of touch with the dynamic and powerful
Raising of Islam which they seem to be unable to see or taste.
They now only see themselves in front of the abyss of wasted
good will in prosaic phobias and irrelevant matters, they created
for their gullible followers. Although some will prefer not to
look IF they can get away with it.

I am proud to say that the dinar that Dr. Erbakan hold in his
hand when he first publicly pronounced his intentions in the
Blue Mosque of Istanbul, surrounded by the takbirs of our
excited and committed Turkish brothers, was a dinar struck
under the authority of the Amir of the Spanish Community, he
himself a long-time devoted Sufi of the Shadili-Darqawi-
Murabitun tariqah, in the city of Granada, may Allah reward
him by His Generosity for doing that.

I, like all the people present, will remember forever the
moment when His Excellency Dr. Necmettin Erbakan and my
Master, Shaykh Abdalqadir as-Sufi al-Murabit, together by the
hand, proclaim from the podium, to the cheerful people of
Istanbul and the shocked Turkish media, in the Opening
Ceremony of the I International Conference of Islamic Thinking
in Istanbul on May of last year, that the dinar was the currency
of the Muslims.

By the Mercy of Allah, all the sufies stand together in this
point of the introduction of the Dinar. I recall the words of the
wali of Allah and the Light of Fatih in Istanbul, Shaykh
Mahmud Effendi, who, surrounded by his murids and others,
as my Master Shaykh Abdalqadir As-Sufi showed him the
dinar and the dirham that our community in Germany was
putting in circulation, said: "This is the money of the Muslims.
It is very important. We should do it very quickly".

Let all the sufies, of all the tariqahs, united by the love on the
Rasul, salallahu alaihi wa salaam, let us be ahead and take upon
ourselves to be the beginners of the introduction of the dinar
and the dirham, only for the pleasing of Allah, subhana wa
ta'ala, by the fulfilment His Command, and so that everybody
else can follow.

The following simple introduction presented in parts will be
followed by deeper analysis and guidelines for the
abandonment of Riba and the establishment of complete and
self-transformative Islamic Trading. There will be also practical
guidelines of how you can obtain the coins and how you can
start using them.

HOW SUBSTANTIAL IS THIS MOVEMENT ?

At this stage, the movement to convert from paper money to real money in the Muslim world is small, but if information I have is accurate, it could be about to explode in size driven by the reasons noted above. Here are some of the recent developments which suggest the movement may be well on its way to becoming a monetary force to be reckoned with.

· The State Government of Kelantan, the northeast Sultanate of Malaysia has a week ago officially adopted the ISLAMIC DINAR its economic policy. This means that the ISLAMIC DINAR will circulate through the hands of hundreds of thousands of people in a physical form. It seems possible that as word of this movement travels among Muslims, demand to open accounts and begin using this medium of exchange could grow very rapidly in the Muslim world.

· The ISLAMIC DINAR is now being privately used in more than 22 countries and is currently being minted in four countries. Eventually, the list of countries where it is traded is likely to grow to a much larger number given the large number of Islamic Countries who are members in the Islamic Development Bank, which includes some 51 countries. During 1982, the Islamic Development Bank was prescribed by the IMF as a holder of Special Drawing Rights (SDR's). SDR's are a unit of IMF currency tied to gold. The Islamic Dinar. The Islamic Dinar, which is the unit of account at the Islamic Development Bank, is equal in value to one SDR. Member countries of the Islamic Development Bank are Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Benin, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyz Republic, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leonne, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. With a total Muslim population of 1.1 billion (19.2% of the world's population), if even a small percentage of Muslims begin to demand Islamic Dianars as their medium of exchange instead of paper, it could have a dramatic effect on the price of gold.

· An Islamic Agency has been set up to handle accounts and payments between accounts in the city of Dubai. This will allow the use of Islamic Dinars to spread in the Muslim world as a medium of exchange. At present, this undertaking is quite modest, with only $200,000 worth of gold deposited in Dubai. Dubai is viewed as an attractive place to keep money away from the taxation authorities since there are not taxes on individuals, corporation or merchandise sales there. This spokesman for the Islamic Dinar mint also claims his organization has a good relationship with the Royal Family in Dubai, which should help the group's efforts. After the summer a campaign aimed to the Muslim world to open accounts in dinars is anticipated and the goal is to open 10,000 accounts within the first year of operation.

· The organization may link up with another new and exciting development in the modern world as far as gold is concerned. They may soon be trading gold Islamic Dinars globally on the Internet through an organization located at www.e-gold.com . Readers are encouraged to visit this web site for more information, but essentially, the technology now exists to enable you to buy and sell gold right from your computer. It will be quite easy to make compatible our Islamic Agency, which will be operated by a Web Site to your e-gold Web Site.

· The sponsors of the Islamic Dinar will suggest to Muslims that they convert their paper currency denominated accounts into Islamic Dinar in Dubai. In addition to tax aspects, Dubai is an appropriate place from which to launch this new banking enterprise because it is forbidden for Muslims to deposit their money with non-Muslims. In the Qur'an itself, Allah makes this prohibition (which is a command for us) clear precisely when referring to the Islamic Dinar.

· On May 22 through May 24, directors of the Islamic Mint Directors from all over the world were scheduled to meet in Dubai to move this project forward. Stay tuned. I plan to tell you more about this story as it unfolds and how you may be able to begin buying gold by way of e-gold.

At this juncture, the western world could care less about gold because it has convinced itself that man can control his own destiny. Life has been so grand for us in the U.S. and most of the western world over the past 50+ years that we have given ourselves the credit for our prosperity rather than giving God the credit. Given this delusional thinking, we are convinced there is nothing, including matters of money that we cannot fix. This of course is pure rubbish especially when you consider that the depression now faced by Asia was created by excessive international liquidity made possible by the post-Bretton Woods floating rate exchange system. Even as the west experiences a moral decline that will inevitably lead to its destruction, Muslims acknowledge man's true need to live by a higher order. Accordingly, they detonate bombs and build their economies on real money rather than IOU's. Timing is difficult to figure here, but 1 billion+ Muslims beginning to opt for real money rather than the fake stuff, could portend well for the price of gold in the near future.

Enormous Carnage to Asian Muslims

One of the reasons given for the continued insane rise in Wall Street has been the flow of money out of the Asian countries into the U.S. markets in search of a safe haven. But this makes no sense to the tens of millions of Muslims in Indonesia who are now suffering through a fate worse than we faced in the 1930's. Indonesia, which is comprised virtually 100% of Muslims, contains the 4th largest population in the world. Those people blame Suharto but they also blame the U.S. because Suharto was financially tied into the U.S. and our internationally dominant fractional reserve banking system. This underlying anger, which has been caused by enormous devastation suffered by hundreds of millions of Muslims throughout Asia, is likely to provide a powerful incentive for Muslims to "stick it to the Great Satan" by selling dollars and buying Islamic Dinars. At the same time, these people see this as a way to protect themselves by holding real money rather than the fake paper IOU's which has, overnight lost up to 70% of its purchasing power overnight. The dominant theme of the sponsors of the Islamic Dinar is the liability aspects of paper money and that as a result it is dishonest money. Moreover, as recently seen in Asia, when the promise to pay fails dollars fails the system collapses and human misery is compounded. This may be little more than theory to most of us in the U.S., but it is a harsh reality for hundreds of millions of Muslims who live in Indonesia and elsewhere in Asia. It may be safe to say these people are mad as hell and they may not take it much longer.

· Islamic Religious Beliefs - Not unlike Christians who have forgotten the basics of their faith founded on biblical teachings, so too have many, if not most Muslims forgotten the basics of their faith based on the Qur'an. One of the main pillars of the Islamic faith is the observance of Zakat, which dictates that Muslims must give at least 2 ½ % of their income to the poor. Wealthy people are encouraged to give more. The important factor to keep in mind as far as gold is concerned is that these gifts are to be paid only with tangible merchandise and that it cannot be paid with a promise to pay, which is in fact, all that paper money is. The Zakat is to be paid with honest money or actual substance, not a promise to pay. The Islamic Dinar, which is A 100% gold coin and unit of currency, fits this Islamic requirement.

The Islamic (Gold) Dinar

Pakistan, a Muslim country, recently exploded an atomic bomb following the same action by its Hindu neighbor, India. These bombs everyone has heard about and the potential for these and other countries end the existence of mankind on earth certainly is frightening to everyone except perhaps stock market crazed westerners who are simply not sober enough to care. Frightening as the atomic bomb is, another kind of bomb, namely The Islamic Dinar could pose an even bigger threat to our existing financial system which I believe would be enormously bullish for gold. Although I believe the Islamic Bomb may be a threat to the status quo, almost no one has yet caught on to this very recent development.

The Islamic Dinar is a newly created 100% gold currency that its backers hope and believe will become the currency of more than one billion Muslims. The organizers of this currency not only see the Islamic Dinar as an eventual rival to the U.S. Dollar as a reserve currency, and are hopeful it will usher in the demise of the U.S. Dollar. So far, I have learned most of what I know about this movement from the Internet. The Internet is very often used to spread misinformation as well as truth. So, it may be possible that this movement is not all that it is cracked up to be on its web site (www.users.dircon.co.uk/~netking/murabitn.htm). However, I believe the movement is real and for reasons noted below, I think it could indeed pose a threat of devastation to the U.S. Dollar and existing world order. Following are a couple of the reasons I think this could be true