Modern gold dinar
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The modern Islamic gold dinar (sometimes referred as Islamic dinar or Gold dinar) is a currency that aims to revive the historical gold dinar which was a leading coin of early Islam. They consist of minted gold coins, Dinar, and silver coins, Dirham.
Dinar history
According to Islamic law, the Islamic dinar is a coin of pure gold weighing 4.25 grams. The Islamic dirham coin is 2.975 grams of pure silver. Umar Ibn al-Khattab established the known standard relationship between them based on their weights: "7 dinars must be equivalent (in weight) to 10 dirhams."[citation needed]
The Revelation undertook to mention them and attached many judgements to them, for example zakat, marriage, and hudud, etc., therefore within the Revelation they have to have a reality and specific measure for assessment of zakat, etc. upon which its judgements may be based rather than on the non-shari'i other coins.
Know that there is consensus since the beginning of Islam and the age of the Companions and the Followers that the dirham of the shari'ah is that of which ten weigh seven mithqals weight of the dinar of gold... The weight of a mithqal of gold is seventy-two grains of barley, so that the dirham which is seven-tenths of it is fifty and two-fifths grains. All these measurements are firmly established by consensus.
Abdalqadir as-Sufi is known to be a strong proponent of the idea for the gold dinar revival movement.
Value and denomination
As per the historical law slated above, one dinar is 4.25 grams of pure gold, while one dirham is 2.975 grams of pure silver. A smaller denomination, daniq, has 1/6th of dirham's weight. The value of each coin is according to their weight and the market value of the two metals. The coins may be minted at fraction or multiples of their weights and valued accordingly.
Adoption
Indonesia
The currency was introduced in Indonesia in the year 2000 by Islamic Mint Nusantara and Logam Mulia. IMN also introduced Dinarfirst, an online dinar exchange system.
Malaysia
Kelantan was the first state in the country to introduce the dinar in 2006, which was locally minted. In 2010, it issued new coins, including the dirham, minted in United Arab Emirates by World Islamic Mint.[2]
The state of Perak followed suit, minting its own dinar and dirham, which was launched in 2011[3].
Libya
Along with the uprising in Libya, RT News has recently brought a speculation of Kadaffi introducing a golden dinar as a currency to pay for oil in international markets.[4]
Use
Most of the coins are issued privately and do not own legal tender status. In case of Malaysia, the state government of Kelantan allows their use in transactions while it is illegal according to the federal law.
Common uses of the gold dinar include:
- Buying merchandise from outlets.
- Holding accounts, and making and receiving payments as with any other medium of exchange.
- Saving, of which they do not suffer from devaluation due to inflation.
- Paying zakat and dower as established within Islamic Law.
See also
Notes
Citations
External links
- e-Dinar - Mint in the United Arab Emirates
- The Gold Dinar and Silver Dirham - authored by Sheikh Imran Hosein
- World Islamic Mint
- The Zakat Pages
- The Gold Dinar Research Group (GDRG) Malaysian website
- Gold Dinar News 2001-2004