November 15, 2024 4:39 PM EST
The ruling on trading in digital currencies in Iraq
The International Union of Muslim Scholars issued a fatwa on the ruling on trading in digital currencies in Iraq and in Arab countries. It published on its website the fatwa issued by the Ijtihad and Fatwa Committee regarding dealing with these encrypted digital currencies. It stated that dealing with these virtual currencies in their current state is prohibited. It is also prohibited to manufacture or trade them.
The committee explained some of the reasons on which it relied in this fatwa. Among them is that these encrypted digital currencies do not meet the pillars and conditions specific to money according to economists and jurists. Which include that cash currencies are ruling. And that they are an average among all funds so that funds can be estimated with them. And that their proportion to all funds is the same proportion.
In addition, digital currencies do not perform any of the functions performed by paper currencies and money. The most important of which is that currencies are a general medium for various exchange operations, a measure of the value of things, a store of wealth, and a standard for debts and deferred payments. However, Bitcoin and similar digital currencies do not resemble any actual and real existence. They were not issued by any guarantor from any country. Therefore, it does not meet the most important condition of money, which is that it has a guaranteed value from the issuing entity.