Islamic Fiqh > Financial transactions > Sarf: currency exchange
Exchanging gold for gold, one currency for another: exchange rules, the session requirement and application to modern currencies.
Contents
Updated on 31 August 2026 at 3:55 AM
Sarf is the exchange of the riba monies, gold and silver. Same species: equal for equal, hand to hand. Different species: surplus allowed, deferment forbidden. Malik ibn Aws came to Talha ibn Ubayd Allah to change dirhams; Talha offered to pay later; Umar objected: "by Allah, either hand him his silver now or return him his gold, for the Prophet said: silver for gold is riba unless hand to hand..." (Muslim 1586).
Gold for gold, silver for silver, wheat for wheat, barley for barley, dates for dates, salt for salt: equal for equal, hand to hand; whoever gives more or takes more has engaged in riba.al-Bukhari 2177, Muslim 1584
Ibn al-Mundir reports that all scholars agree: the exchange is void if the parties separate before mutual taking; Abu Hanifa alone allows separation before taking, the Hanafis requiring simultaneous taking with bare hands; the Malikis require one sitting and one moment ("ha and ha"). A deputy, or a call from behind a wall, does not work for sarf, the taking being of the essence of the contract, unlike an ordinary sale.
Why does the riba of surplus run on gold and silver? Malik, ash-Shafi'i and Ahmad (one version) answer: because they are the prices of things, the universal standard of value; Abu Hanifa and Ahmad (the other version) say: because they are weighed. Ibn al-Qayyim prefers the first answer: money must keep one single function of valuing; if money becomes a commodity traded for profit, people's dealings are corrupted and injustice spreads. This is why the fulus (copper coinage) does not follow the same rule in the majority's view (Shafi'i madhhab, a Hanbali view, the Hanafis except Muhammad): surplus and deferment are allowed in it, even when it circulates widely; Malik was wary of deferred fulus against gold and silver.
Minted coin and raw gold are equal: "its raw and its coined are equal" (Abu Dawud 3349, an-Nasa'i 4563). The good and the bad are equal, as with the dates of Khaybar: "do not do it; sell the mixed lot, then buy the selected" (al-Bukhari 2202, Muslim 1593). The jeweler who sold his work above the weight of its gold was corrected by Abdullah ibn Umar; Mu'awiya was likewise corrected by Umar for selling a gold vessel above its weight.
For any modern money exchange: same currency, same amount, same moment; different currencies, any amount, same moment. The rule has not aged.