Islamic gold dinar

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.

Contents 1 Dinar history 2 Value and denomination 3 Adoption 3.1 Indonesia 3.2 Malaysia 3.3 Libya 4 Use 5 See also 6 Notes 6.1 Citations 7 References 8 External links

Dinar history

Main article: Gold Dinar

Crusader coins of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Left: Denier in European style with Holy Sepulchre. Middle: One of first Kingdom of Jerusalem gold coins, copying Islamic dinars. Right: Gold coin after 1250, with Christian symbols following Papal complaints.

According to Islamic law, the Islamic dinar is a coin of pure gold weighing 72 grains of average barley. Modern determinations of weight range from 4.25 grams to 4.45 grams of gold, with the silver Dirham being created to the weight ratio of 7:10, yielding coins from 2.975 to 3.15 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.	”
—Ibn Khaldun, Al-Muqaddimah[1]

Abdalqadir as-Sufi is known to be a strong proponent of the idea for the gold dinar revival movement. Imran Nazar Hosein has also been promoting the revival of Dinar usage but has linked its use to Islamic eschatology.

  Value and denomination

As per the historical law slated above, one dinar is 4.44 grams of pure gold, while one dirham is 3.11 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

See also: Kelantanese dinar

In 2002, the prime minister of Malaysia proposed a gold dinar standard for use in the Islamic world.^[2]
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.^[3] On 25 August 2011 Kelantanese government collected and distributed zakat from people in Kelantanese dinars and dirhams in a public ceremony officiated by Chief Minister Dato Nik Aziz Nik Mat.^[4]
The state of Perak followed suit, minting its own dinar and dirham, which was launched in 2011.^[5]

Libya

Along with the uprising in Libya, RT News on August/September 2011 brought several stories about Muammar Gaddafi's introduction of golden dinar^[6] within his "gold-for-oil plan" ^[7] to possibly trade Libya oil on international markets.^[8]

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:

1. Buying merchandise from outlets.
2. Holding accounts, and making and receiving payments as with any other medium of exchange.
3. Saving, of which they do not suffer from devaluation due to inflation.
4. Paying zakat and dower as established within Islamic Law.

See also

• Murabitun World Movement
• Islamic dirham

Notes

  Citations

1. ^ Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah, ch. 3 pt. 34
2. ^ The Economist, March 16th 2005, Buttonwood, Starkers
3. ^ The Malaysian Insider, Kelantan launches gold dinar, August 12th 2010.[1]
4. ^ Malaysia: Kelantan collects Zakat in Shariah money
5. ^ New Strait Times, Silver state launches dinar, dirham coins, March 1st 2011.[2]
6. ^ The Economist, October 8th 2011, Libya’s revolution, reader comments
7. ^ Gaddafi gold-for-oil, dollar-doom plans behind Libya 'mission'?
8. ^ Motivation For Allies May Be Black Gold And Not Humanitarian Mission

References

• Ahamed Kameel Mydin Meera, The Islamic gold dinar, Pelanduk Publications, 2002, ISBN 978-967-978-825-9
• Umar Vadillo, Return of the Gold Dinar: Study of Money in Islamic Law, Bookwork, 1996, ISBN 978-1-874216-16-2

http://en.wikipedia.org