Timeless rules of exchange. Islam. 📜🗺️

Of all religions, probably Islam regulated exchange most detailly. The essence of its various provisions comes down to one of the following quotes: "Exchange gold for gold, silver for silver, wheat for wheat, barley for barley, dates for dates, and salt for salt in equal quantities, the same for the same, and from hand to hand. If your goods are different, then exchange them as you wish, but only from hand to hand." The purpose of such regulation is to prohibit usury.

Most exchanges, especially those concluded outside urban centers, were based on exchanging goods for goods, following three conditions for exchanging similar goods:

1. Equal weight or quantity of exchange goods ("the same for the same").

2. No deferred payment.

3. Instantaneous exchange ("from hand to hand").

When exchanging dissimilar goods belonging to the same subgroup (gold for silver, dates for salt), only the last two conditions must be met.

As for dissimilar goods of different subgroups (gold for barley, silver for dates), the above three conditions do not have to be met.

Today, such guidelines have proven relevant and applicable in currency exchange transactions (Arabic "sarf" - buying and selling one currency for another).

For currency exchange transactions to be valid, three conditions must be met:

1. Instantaneous settlement. (Today, currency is considered to be a banknote whose value is nominal, i.e. indicated on the banknote. Therefore, when exchanging one currency for another, it is allowed to exchange in different quantities, as in the case of metal money [gold (dinars), silver (dirhams)], but another important condition must be met - instantaneous settlements.)

2. No deferred payment. (The ban on currency exchange with deferred payment is because of such a transaction will lead to unpredictable consequences. For example, the parties agreed to exchange at the current price, but decided to postpone the transfer of currencies. In this case, it may turn out that the exchange rate changes, the person will give up his currency under the agreement, although its value will already be different. If the parties agree to exchange at some future rate, it turns out that they agreed on a price that is unknown.)

3. Equivalence when exchanging the same currency. (It follows from this condition that it is impossible to exchange a new banknote for an old one with a surcharge.)