Is Bitcoin Halal Can I pray Jumuah at school before Duhr time starts Q&A

Yasir Qadhi

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Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah who either early he also heavy woman while Welcome to another q&a session or regular Tuesdays and once again all of you who are interested in emailing please you can email at ask why Q at Epic messages dot o RG once again ask why Q at Epic Masjid dot orgy and once again I keep on reiterating, I cannot email you back your answers I will choose from the questions that which is inshallah the most beneficial for all of you. Those of you that email personal questions, I do apologize but I cannot answer them. So please understand, please try to choose general questions that lots of people can benefit from.

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So we began in sha Allah Our first question brother Zahid from Wylie, Texas Wiley is literally the next city out of Plano. So Wylie, Texas, he is a high school student in our neighboring district. And he says that his school has allowed Muslim students to pray Joomla on Fridays during the lunch break, however, he says that the lunch timing obviously when the time changes, those of you that are not in America, you should know that our time changes, we have an hour that goes back in our good that goes forward and follow it in spring. He says when the time changes, then the lunch slot comes before salatu Zohar. And so he is saying that what do we do that our lunch break therefore will

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finish before the horse starts during some of the months and then most of the month it is perfect timing. So he heard an opinion that he may pray Joomla in this time slot, and he wants to know what my position is on this regard. So this is a very good question. And it deals with the beginning timing and we'll also cover the end timing of Sonata Juma. Now before I answer the film or the technical side, I want to firstly encourage this brothers I had mashallah for taking the initiative. It looks like that he's already involved in the Muslim Student Association at a high school. They're engaged with the community they want to start their own Juma and this is something that encourage

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every single one of you to try to make sure that you are praying Juma prayers, those of you that are in high school, those of you that are at your workplaces, obviously those that are adults, it is obligatory, the adult males it is obligatory, and those of you that are even in school, I know that sometimes it is difficult. The least you can do is try inshallah to Allah to petition, your your your your high school or your school, if you have a good number of students and ask for a time slot and an empty room And Alhamdulillah across at least in the United States of America. I know for a fact that many, many high schools actually have Juma on their campuses, including the one that is

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closest to our mystery of the public high school. This is a Western public high school. The closest is called the Plano High School is Plano high school this is in fact, they have solitaire Joomla on campus, and one of their own local students gives it so I encourage all of you to try your best to have Joomla in your schools, if you are able to get permission to have it in your schools. And if you can even go to a masjid, which is of course probably logistically far more difficult, but still try your best to do that. And by the way, even before I answer, you know the this question from a filthy point, the reality of trying to understand our real situation in America and fine tuning

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fifth. So some some time ago, I said that we should have a rethink through some of the rules of faith and reform what needs to be reformed. And unfortunately, some of the brothers really misunderstood and they made a very huge deal out of it completely misquoting and, you know, going against my methodology quite clearly and you know, may Allah forgive them for this egregious Calamondin accusation. But the fact of the matter is that this is a perfect example, our earlier books of fiqh, living in an ideal Islamic land said there should be the least number of Juma as possible in a city and the maximum people should come together for every Joomla in fact, sometimes

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you even find some books they said there should really only be one Joomla and the whole city or at least in one entire district of a city, there should only be one Joomla and you know, that makes complete sense when you are in a Muslim land and everything is going to shut down and we are expected to go pray Joomla but in North America and in all minority countries situations where it is extremely problematic to take

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Take two, three hours and drive half an hour and then listen and then come back. And in fact, we have to understand not everybody even has that level of iman to ask their boss for a two hour break. And not everybody, even if they ask their boss, we'll get a two, three hour break because the workload is different. And the person who's working as a laborer, let's say, in a factory doesn't have the privilege of an executive or a CEO that has much more privilege. So looking at the situation in North America, and across Europe and across the western world, we should encourage as many juniors as possible in order to facilitate people to come to any Juma and I know for a fact in

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a number of cities, you know, especially in the cities that have large corporations, Google and Microsoft, and all of this right, that they have massive buildings, right next to each other, maybe next to meaning like five minutes away, not like literally an extra but 510 minutes away, but it is a separate Campus Security insecurity out to get from there to another is a huge nightmare. Employees of one corporation cannot go to the other corporation easily, even though the physical distance is not that much. But because there are so many Muslims working in these corporations. And yes, these all companies, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, all of them, they have mashallah lo Boeing,

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lots and lots of Muslims working in these corporations. And I know for a fact that I visited some of these companies that they have Joomla on site. And sometimes even some of these corporations themselves are so big, that they will have multiple juniors in different office buildings. So they have unit one will have his Joomla unit two will have its Joomla simply because the corporation does not facilitate two three hour breaks on Friday, there's a lot of work to be done. And so during the lunch break, they might get a little bit extra Joomla. And so there's enough people to pray Joomla in one office building 3040 50 people in one room, and then in the next room 3040 They can't even

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have a room of 500 people on those facilities. Even though the masjid might be a 15 minute drive or which is in America 1520 minutes is a reasonable distance to go for Juma, but because of the quantity of Muslims and the logistics of going in and out. And the fact that if you were to put hurdles and barriers, many of those that come for Joomla would not actually drive all the way there for Joomla. So in order to do this, looking at the situation, there is no problem that we look at it in a reasonable manner and say, Hey, if you're able to form a Joomla, in which more people come and Subhanallah if you're going to put more and more barriers, the level of iman is already so low and a

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person who might take the elevator down to the second floor to have a Juma and he's not going to go 20 minutes to the masjid and then come back to the late lunch break and then have problems with his boss, you are allowing him to come and pray to high school students, right? The high school student they cannot leave the premises usually most most high schools would not allow you to leave the high school during Jumar time. But if there's 4050 students, even 20 students, even 10 students, and they petition and they say hey, can we have a small gathering every Friday and in America generally speaking, you know, they're going to be receptive because of the freedom of religion. They can allow

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this to happen. So maybe somebody who studied earlier Phyllis iStockphoto law, you're having a job or 20 minutes away from the masjid five minutes away from the Masjid. It's better for them not to pray tomorrow. And we say yesterday, please, that might have been the case when the man was high and we're living in an Ideal Muslim land. But given the reality between no Joomla and between a second, third, fourth, fifth Joomla there is no question that we need to quote unquote, reform. This is what I was saying when I talked about reformation quote unquote, I'm not talking about you know, a complete rehaul of the shady out with a biller. I'm saying certain rulings that make a lot of sense

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and Muslim majority situations do not make sense and Muslim minority situations and we have to be open minded enough to see the shady I did not say Allah did not say have one Juma in the city, the process of did not say this, there is no unanimous consensus. So here we have a young lad, I went into all of this tangent to clarify and explain here we have a young lad, he's saying that we're praying Joomla out, but now they have another issue. And the issue is the timing of Sinatra. Joomla. And that lunchtime comes sometimes when lunchtime finishes, it is before the vote her timing in our locality. And so maybe lunch finishes, I don't know 1130 and though her might start at 1215. So he's

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saying what are we going to do now that for those two, three months, when do her and lunch, you know, are different timings what is to be done? So we say that when it comes to this issue, realize that even from the earliest of time there have been two opinions about the beginning timing of Joomla. And it is true that the majority of scholars the Hanafi is the Shah phrase the Maliki's, they said that Joomla time begins after the Zool after the Sun begins this decline. So when the sun reaches its zenith, then when it begins to decline, this is the time of the hook and it is a time of Dunhuang. So for these three month hubs, according to them, that would not be the time of Jomar

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So they would say that this is not going to constitute Joomla. And that is a valid opinion, and they base this on a number of traditions of them. It is reported that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam would pray Joomla when the sun began to go down, and a no way remarks that Imam Shafi said Imam Shafi said the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and a worker, an aroma, an Earthman and all of the Imams, the the leaders after them, they pray Juma after the Zool and so the notion is that the default of the Ummah has been to pray Juma after the Sun begins, it's so well, however, there is a dissenting midheaven that is the Humboldt eight madhhab the Henneberry madhhab says that it is

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allowed to pray Junior art before the Zool some of the scholars of the humble you might have even said you can pray to more at once so that the dog comes in very early on however, the default of the madhhab which is the position that is the mature and the and the factual given is that you may pray slightly before there's a while you may pray an hour before this award and not like five hours not before Fajr I mean, sorry, not after fajr but you may pray Joomla you know, before is the word by a little bit, so they say Joomla and Doha are not the same time slots they say Joomla begins a little bit before the her and some say a lot before the her and they base this on the hadith of Jabba Radi

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Allahu Allah and that is reported inside Buhari sign Muslim authentic hadith that that we will pray Juma out with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and then we would return to our camels and take them to the pastures when the sun began to go down the Zoa began. So the fact that they pray Jumaa, then they go back to the pasture, and they go to their camels and the sun begins it's Zool This means Juma must've been prayed before the ZyWall and selama tip that Aqua narrates that we used to pray with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Jumuah and then we would go home and the walls would not have enough shadow for us to find comfort in them. So the walls so the walls of the

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streets, the walls of the the passageways, right so when you're in the heat of the sun, you want to walk in the shade and sell out. Aqua says when we would come back, the walls would not have even enough of a shadow that we could come under their shade, which means that it was basically at zero all the time, which means that Juma was prayed before the word and saheliyon aside or the Allahu to Iran reported that Mokona nuclear war and wallah anatella in Baghdad Giamatti, fair idea Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, we would only take our afternoon naps and eat our lunch after the Joomla during the time of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and their afternoon naps were

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typically done around Zool time. So the siesta you know the the common habit of the siesta, which is found in many countries, especially in the Spanish speaking countries. And that's because of the arrows mashallah the Arabs had the Tallulah and so the in the loose, they took this habit and it became something common. And to this day, by the way, the only European country that I'm aware of that has that rule. I'm sure somebody is going to correct me in the comments, but we're the ones I have visited.

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No European countries that I have visited shuts down during the daytime but Spain is one of those countries that they have this clueless system just like in Arabian other places where during the day, nobody does anything and there's like two shifts here. In any case, the point is that the point of having that afternoon siesta, it was done when the sun was added zenith and Salomon Assad said, we will only take our karula and we will eat our lunch after Jumar which indicates it's an indication that the Juma was done before the ZyWall and this is why even Kodama the great giant of the humbly medhelp who wrote the encyclopedia al Mooney, he says that we're inside of the Jumada

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cobblers, why the facade is this at a tomb if the people pray Jumeirah, right before there's a wall in the last hour, the six hour here means the 60s Sasa This means after fajr by six hours, yeah, and if the wall is 12 o'clock, he means 11 o'clock. That's what he means. Right? So the point is that before is the world by an hour, if you pray Joomla, the humbly medhelp allows it and it is completely permissible. So according to this famous men have the great metaphor, and they have plenty of evidence to back them up. They say that it is completely allowed to presume or during the timeframe that you are talking about, by the way, just FYI very quickly, the end timing of Joomla.

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There's also two opinions on this. And once again you have three methods say one thing and one might have say another so the humbard is the shaft freeze and the Hanafi say that Jumeau our time ends with the beginning of Ossur. So just like the hard times ends with the beginning of also, so to June

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Our time ends, June why time ends when ASA begins? By the way, footnote here. Interestingly enough, the HANA fees have a different answer time. So even amongst the HANA fees, the Joomla time would be longer because the Hanafi say, when the shadow reaches double its length is the time for Elsa and the sharp fairies and hamburgers and Maliki say when the shadow reaches one its length, then it becomes also time. So according to the Hanafi madhhab, technically Joomla is much later can be prayed anyway, than the other two, but they say the same. And that is that when also time comes in Joomla time finishes, the one month have that that has another phrasing. So again, technically,

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these are two opinions, right? So I say it's one opinion because the wording is the same when also time comes in. But in reality, when also time comes in itself is two opinions. And the Hanafi said one thing, and the other month have said another thing. So we have over here already two opinions, one July ends, but there is another opinion and that is the Maliki madhhab, especially the giants of the Maliki madhhab. So Hanuman and others they explicitly say this that Juma can be prayed any time before Marieb as long as also it is also prayed. So they say that Jumar can be delayed. And as long as you pray Joomla and then acid and then Muslim time comes in, you are fine. So the Maliki's kind

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of extend Joomla all the way to let's say 20 minutes before Muslim or 10 minutes before most of this give the hotbar prayer Joomla and then you pray also, and then if you have to, they're saying and then you are fine here now. Therefore, the humbly Madhava allows an earlier Joomla the Hanafi madhhab would allow a later Joomla the Malik is without Allah latest Joomla. Now question here is it allowed for the student

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to pick the humbly method even though they might themselves behind a fee or Shafi and again, I have my position on this and that is that we do not pick and choose med hubs based upon following desires based upon Shaohua. Based upon making life something that is easy for me, but we may follow an opinion from another madhhab if there is a need to do so. And the goal is the preservation of the deen the goal is to make the religion easier not to make life easier. And in this case, our student here in the Wiley district has one of two options if he sticks with the Hanafi and Shafee and Maliki and I don't mind that per se and that's fine. If he wants to do that. That's I mean, I'm not saying

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it's wrong per se, if he wants to be pedantic and stick to the madhhab. And the school district is not allowing them to go pray in the local machine, which is frankly, that's not going to happen that you cannot expect the school to allow the 10th graders to leave the premises it's really not even wise or legal to do so. So I understand the school won't allow them to do that. So what you are saying essentially is there will be no drama. And I understand some people are so adamant to stick with their meds have they're going to say we don't care that's fine, no tomorrow that's what Allah and His Messenger want. I only push back and say But my dear brother, Yanni these muda HIV are human

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constructs these mega HIV greater Allah ma attempted to drive Allah's laws and inshallah they're all good people. And if we find an opinion, that is better for the deen not easier for our knifes not easier for Xiao Hua not that we want to follow a desire and this shift allowed this and we like to this food this show allowed this drink without this drink. No we don't pick and choose because of our sensual desires. But if we were to choose a position in order to make our iman stronger in order to preserve the deen of a 15 year old child, then me personally I am all for this. And if I were in charge of this, you know the school or whatnot, I mean meaning if they came to me and the brother is

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coming to me, I will say you may follow not only you may you should follow the humbling but have in your school district for the time being then when you become an adult and you are in control of your affairs and you wish to remain Hanafy and disregard no problem and hamdulillah stick to your madhhab where you can but in this circumstance when there is no alternative and you want to follow a position in order that your iman increases and that you listen to the vicar of Allah and that your fellow students come together and have a hot bath and you feel that you're Muslim on July day. Well then of course this is a no brainer you should take the humbly met her position and pray Joomla in

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your lunch break throughout the entire year. There is no harm or problem in this and ALLAH SubhanA wa Taala knows best. We now move on to our next question Mila

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so we have another question very complicated question. I'm going to try to summarize this brother body from Auckland New Zealand mashallah Tabata cola I'm very happy we have viewers all the way from what do you call New Zealand Down Down Under I don't know because down under Australia and you even down or down within Australia so you are Masha Allah, Yanni.

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What do you call the Kiwis? Right? That's what you call you guys, kiwis. Bye

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Shala This is not an insult brothers and sisters, the people in New Zealand they call themselves Kiwis they they like this term. So I have never been by the way HINT HINT wink wink maybe one day in sha Allah. So brother thought it from Auckland, New Zealand he emails and he asks that recently a fatwa has been given by a national council of orlimar in a particular Muslim land, there's no need to mention the land over here saying that Bitcoin is haram and he has heard me state in the past that Bitcoin is halal. So in light of this new fatwa, he is asking, Can I comment on it? And what are my thoughts about this? So, to respond to this question briefly, without trying to rehash an

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entire lecture I gave about Bitcoin in the past that realize that this is the footwear that has just been released by a particular Muslim country, that to be honest, I read it, there is nothing new in it per se. The same arguments are hashed and rehashed about Bitcoin and about cryptocurrencies overall, for the last six, seven years, and respected and respected councils have spoken about this. And there are predominantly two main camps, the first of them, which is this country, and other grand, you know, as great scholars, I should say, they say that it is completely impermissible, it is how long and they have a number of you know, various evidences, they, you know, five or six they

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mentioned, and I have gone over this in a longer q&a. And the second position, which is what I have advocated on the field Council in North America, and many finance experts across the globe, I have read a number of photographers, from scholars in England, from scholars in Malaysia, from scholars in France, from scholars in Saudi Arabia, who have written treatises and papers on Bitcoins, on Bitcoin in particular, that they say that it is halal. And in the end of the day, really, dear brother, you will have to follow the authorities whom you trust, because this is a new matter. And both sides have respected aroma. And scholars and I have been teaching respect of scholarly

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opinions, you know, even as I position or even if I have championed my own position, and argue my own case, this is my opinion. In the end of the day, dear brother, you have to follow the group of scholars that you trust, and the rest is, you know, between you and Allah subhanho wa taala. But you've asked me to comment on this. And I will simply comment by stating that the position of those who say that it is permissible bitcoin is permissible, and I'm one of them and the field Council North America that I belong to also gave this photo is basically the default, they don't need to bring any evidences, they say, the default when it comes to all types of transactions is that they

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are permissible, whoever bans it, whoever makes it haram, the proof of burden is on them. And they say we say I say that all of these evidences that they bring to talk about Bitcoin being haram do not reach the level of making it out on the max that they can say is that it is speculative and perhaps dangerous for an investment and perhaps not wise to do but to make something haram based upon the arguments that they bring, we feel many scholars feel that they simply haven't done that. And because of this, Bitcoin remains upon his default, which is that it is valid. In other words, the onus of the proof is on them, the onus of the burden is on them, and every single point that

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they bring to make Bitcoin haram, if you were to take that point, you could apply it to many other things that the same group makes valid. Please understand what I'm saying here, every single point that they bring to say that Bitcoin is haram, you can bring that same issue, whether it's speculation, whether it's the fact that you know, we don't know the price is going to be whether it's the fact that they believe it doesn't have tangible value. And we can extrapolate this to other things as well that you think it doesn't have tangible value that people think it does have tangible value. So whatever criticism that they bring, you can extrapolate it to other things that the same

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group will allow, and therefore we find that in reality, the aspects that they bring to criticize a Bitcoin are not strong enough to make it haram and also realize that the issue of cryptocurrencies is overall a relatively new market, it's literally a decade old or a decade and, you know, a year I mean, 11 years, literally, and so there's a lot of controversies and don't be surprised if people's fit was changed or modified over time. A lot of people a lot of scholars are not really understanding what Bitcoin is and cryptocurrencies in general. And, you know, I advise those of you that are interested to basically do your own research by the way, each cryptocurrency it has a white

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paper that is authored by the people who have founded the particular cryptocurrency and the information about it is, is available online. This white paper it it throws light on a number of aspects, most importantly the purpose behind the Bitcoin. Sorry, the purpose behind the crypto technology that could

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To currency and also the technology that is that is used. Now, the issue of Bitcoin in particular, there have been quite a lot of photos given about Bitcoin in particular, I am not aware of any detailed fatwa that has gone into cryptocurrencies overall I'm sure there are I just haven't come across them. Crypto currencies is broader than Bitcoin. Bitcoin is the first and the most famous and as of today, it is the most expensive as of right now, it is the most expensive Bitcoin, but the fact was that have been given are particularly about Bitcoin, and you can extrapolate them to Aetherium and to some of the more established coins, the problem comes there is no question that

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because of the success of Bitcoin, a lot of cryptocurrencies have been formed that are completely useless, they are formed by unscrupulous people who basically want to enact a large Ponzi scheme, a Ponzi scheme is where you take the investment of the later group in order to pay off the earlier group so that it looks to the earlier group that a profit has been made, the people feel there's a profit being made. And so they come in the next wave is then used to pay the middle wave, and then the middle way makes a profit. And then when you get a very large profit, all of a sudden, somebody disappears, the Ponzi scheme collapses. And it turns out, it was a huge fraud from the beginning.

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And this is named after one of the first people to do this. So Ponzi was his name, so called the Ponzi scheme, there is no question that some of the newer cryptocurrencies, many of them might actually be elaborate Ponzi schemes. However, just because some of these are many of these are Ponzi schemes, it doesn't mean that every one of them is so we don't throw out you know, all of the apples in the barrel just because one or two or even 10 Apples are bad or corrupted we look at them you know, bit by bit, bit by bit pun intended with Bitcoin and Bitcoin in particular, the field Council has issued a fatwa by naming Bitcoin only, and we did not talk about the rest of the crypto

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currencies. Now, we can extrapolate as we said to the stable and the established currencies in the cryptocurrency market such as Aetherium, such as Cardano, such as tether these are established by now and the field counselors footwork can easily be extrapolated to these ones as well basically any established coin that has a legitimate purpose and that is based on the blockchain blockchain technology, it does appear that you know once it is established and people are now actually using it in the real world, that inshallah it will meet the same criteria as Bitcoin. Now, as I said, The problem comes these factors that make Bitcoin haram

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they use generic, generic things, generic matters, that are not themselves applied consistently to other matters. So for example, one of the biggest things that is mentioned is they say, the price is speculative, we do not know one day is going to go high, the other is going to go low. And of course, so are the prices of stocks. So are the prices of currency trade, we do not know if there is a crises in let's say, Japan tomorrow, Japan, the Japanese yen and the American dollar, the the the exchange rate might change completely, it's very volatile, especially if a country is engaging in trade or civil war or something of this nature, things might happen. Just because it's speculative.

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It does not make it how long the fact that the price is unknown, or the price might easily go up and down does not make the product haram or the issue haram. Another issue that is raised is that Bitcoin is not backed by a government Hence, it is not an established currency. And this is a semi valid point in that it is not backed by a government. But then the next issue hence it is not an established currency. That's where the big question mark comes because the Quran and Sunnah does not define what a currency is. And especially in our times, when pretty much all of the currencies or most of the currencies of the world are no longer linked to actual gold and silver, you know,

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President Nixon in 1971. Famously, he d linked the US dollar from gold. And so, what exactly is a currency? What constitutes Mal? What can be used to be to exchange commodities or to use as the basic measure by which to buy and sell things? What has monetary value is it only gold and silver? Some folks have said that, by the way, and there are people even today calling for a return of the gold standard and the gold dinar and you know, I mean, utmost respect to them. I have nothing against that and you know, in some ways will lie. It makes a lot of sense. I'm not against that. But that's not how the world actually works. And the American dollar and the British Pound sterling and

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you know, the Japanese yen, they are not linked to any actual commodity. They are quite literally printed by their governments and people who give value to them because they trust their governments. So because of this quite a number of fuqaha

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Even in early Islam even in medieval Islam, they did they they said that that mal monetary you know currency does not have to be tangible per se. And many of the Shafi scholars Imams sooth and others are of this opinion, even some of the modern Hanafuda moved to talk Earth money is also of the opinion that if a non tangible item such as a quote, or rights and benefits, attains value, according to the custom of the people, then it can be treated as mal, and so move data and others Imams duty, and before him and whatnot, they say we look at the Earth, or the prevalent customs of the people, we look at what people do business with. And if they give value to something, and if

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they consider something to be worthy of value, then it can in fact, gain that value. And the whole point of Bitcoin is to break away from centralized banks, those fuqaha, who criticize Bitcoin, by saying it's not backed up by a government with utmost respect, it's as if they've kind of lost the whole point of Bitcoin, because that is exactly what Satoshi the founder of Bitcoin actually intended, he wanted a currency that is decentralized, he wanted a currency that is not linked to any government government, because he felt that governments are manipulative, that governments are elitist that governments are themselves inflating the value of their own currency by printing or not

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printing or doing whatever. So he wanted a currency that is truly global, and that has no one entity or cabal that monitors it. And he wanted a currency that would be decided its price would be decided by all of mankind, its market value will be equally everybody gets to decide how much you know, a bitcoin is worth not the elitist banks or the governments or whatnot, he wanted it to be a truly open democratic, if you like, system. So the notion of Bitcoin not being backed by a government is absolutely correct. But that's the whole point of the Bitcoin. So the claim that Bitcoin has imaginary value, I mean, to be cynical here, the same can be said, to be brutally honest of of the

00:32:14--> 00:32:54

American dollar, or the British pound, that technically, I mean, if you were to use if you were to go to the jungles of you know, some land that has no fiat currency, and try to use these, this paper money, they will just look at you and say, what, what is this? What am I going to do with this, right. And there's an example that, you know, has has been given by a certain scholar who talked about Bitcoin, I forgot his name. And I'm not trying to take credit for this example. But I remember hearing this in a lecture that the example of Bitcoin somewhat is like when you go to an amusement park, and you decide when you enter the amusement park, you hand over some money, and you get some

00:32:54--> 00:33:36

tokens. And these tokens are used for rides inside the amusement park, right, some REITs have one coin, some rights have two coins. Now, these coins, they have value inside of the amusement park, and they have value within that system. And everybody understands when you're within that system, that this coin, this this token, it has value. However, outside of the amusement park, if you were to take this, you know token that is used in the amusement park, and you were to try to buy food outside of the amusement park, or you go to another place, they're going to just look at you what is this, we don't know what it is. So this token has value amongst a certain group of people. And it

00:33:36--> 00:34:08

has no value amongst another group of people. The fact that one group does not consider it to have value doesn't mean that it actually doesn't have value. And a simple example here that suppose you purchase, let's say, 10 of these tokens, you go to the amusement park, and you have 10 of these tokens, okay? And you want to play some games, and you know, you want to do some rides, and whatever. And then all of a sudden, you know, your, your wife calls you up and says, Where are you? You have some guests coming? By the way, what are you doing at an amusement park without your wife, their cell phone a lot. But anyway, hypothetical example, your wife calls you up and says, You need

00:34:08--> 00:34:45

to be home, and you have these 10 tokens, right? And you have to leave the amusement park. What if you were to sell these tokens on the spot to somebody else? And suppose that that person didn't want to walk all the way back to the entrance? Suppose it's like, you know, Disney World, those of you that have been it's a massive, you know, park and you don't use cash in there, by the way, you do not use actual cash, they have their own currency, you know, inside by the way, this is real. They have their own currency, their own tokens and whatnot inside a Disneyworld, right. So suppose that person didn't want to walk all the way 20 minutes. And those tokens, you purchase them for $10

00:34:45--> 00:35:00

You're like, Okay, I have these 10 tokens. You want them for 20 Instead of walking back, I have them right here. And suppose the token place closed down, and now you have the tokens you have the ability to sell them inside the park. Is anybody gonna say that is haram? It's

00:35:00--> 00:35:41

Clear as halal, because you have the tokens, and this person wants to buy them. And according to you, and this person, this token has meaningful value, it has something that the people inside this park they, they they believe so what exactly constitutes fake currency? In reality, a currency is only as strong as the people who believe in it, and the more people believe in it, the stronger it becomes. So you now have established cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin is the most established and because it has a limited amount, and because it is having every so many years, and within a few decades, there will be no more Bitcoins to actually produce, right? So Bitcoins are being mined, if you know

00:35:41--> 00:36:23

how they're produced. And so, once you purchase a Bitcoin, you are you know, or even a fraction of a Bitcoin, that is it, you are taking a permanent, you know, portion. And once the Bitcoin runs out, there will not be any more Bitcoins produced after that it's going to be bartering, it's going to be handing bitcoins over back and forth. The same goes for Aetherium, and Cardano, and tether, and all of these major ones, that they do have value amongst the people who believe in them millions and millions of people. In fact, some governments have now opened up the door to accept Bitcoin as their official currencies as well, a number of governments have begun this right. And so the claim that

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Bitcoin has no intrinsic value is simply the same as saying, you know, the, the money that is used inside of Disney World has no value. No, it does have value for the people who believe in it. By the way, just FYI, when it comes to Kryptos. And Bitcoin, there are two major categories of people, the first of them, well, there's a third, they don't want to get involved, that's fine. Two that are actually involved, the first of them, they want to get rich off of it in dollars or in their currency. So they want to buy when it's dip, and then when it sell when it rises, right. And this is probably the majority of the people they want to buy. And this is in and of itself helpful. Because

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it's like imagine if the Japanese yen and the American dollar, imagine if you felt because you were expert in Japanese, you know, foreign policy, you felt that, you know, the dollar is going to rise in power. So you invested in this in order to then mark it off of the Japanese yen, that's your speculation is highlighted in and of itself, you know, as long as it's done on the spot, and the money exchanges immediately. It is halal. So if you do this with Bitcoin as well, it is intrinsically Hala. Nothing wrong with that, per se, but you have a second group of people. And these are called the hodlers ha de l huddle. And that basically means you're going to hold on and

00:37:36--> 00:38:24

never let go. And these people actually believe that Bitcoin and these other cryptocurrencies will eventually replace the dollar or if not replace, at least become an actual bonafide global currency. Now, that might seem far fetched. But if anybody is following what's going on in the world, day by day news keeps on coming out that seems to indicate that Bitcoin and Aetherium and these major brands really are situating themselves to become a de facto currency within maybe even a decade if not earlier than that. So what people used to scoff at five seven years ago, now it seems to be pretty pretty mainstream and perhaps even you can see it in the near future. Anyway, the point being

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that the the claim that Bitcoin is haram because it is imaginary or because it is speculative or I mean some people say is haram because Bitcoin is used for haram purposes and again, this is I mean with utmost respect whoever says this, I really think they haven't studied the basics of the reality of how Bitcoin is being used. Of course, Bitcoin is used for Haram is cash not used for haram if cash itself cannot cannot be used for haram Of course it can to make something haram because you are an evil person is using it for how long makes no sense it depends on the functionality in and of itself, currencies are neutral and whether somebody uses them for good or evil, the currency itself

00:39:11--> 00:39:49

were neutral now what this group says is that the anonymity of the user is what makes it haram and to respond to this one can say you know what any the anonymity of a cash giver can also be you can come with a full veil and give a cash over to some criminal or something and even by the way wire transfers I mean, was it last year where almost $2 billion were you know, wired via via via an elaborate scam in Bangladesh somewhere some of them there's some some major you know, scandal happened. I mean, where there's a will there's a way to make all of bank money haha meaning bank wire transfers because somebody can use it for how long to make all of Kryptos are Bitcoin haram

00:39:49--> 00:40:00

because people buy drugs or do haram because of it. Again, it's not a it's not a legitimate reason to make the entire currency or the entire

00:40:00--> 00:40:40

Your issue haram these are simply, like I said, the max that can be said you tell the person to use it for halal. So the the fatwa from the field Council and others remains and and I myself don't see any problem to rethink through this, that all of these issues that are being raised about Bitcoin and others, they have been responded to quite quite easily to be honest, and I really don't see the Mexican we said by the way, the fact that these Council say that it is halal, like the field Council, that doesn't mean that they are endorsing you to go and actually use it. They're simply saying it's not haram. And in fact, in our fulfilled counsel, we actually said that the very last

00:40:40--> 00:41:18

line is that we caution people to Yes, just because it's halal, doesn't mean it's wise. There are two different things you can it something can be halal, but unwise, so you have to yourself think about whether you want to get involved. Yes, it is a volatile market. And the shady does ask that you preserve your wealth, and therefore, what the advice that I would give is the advice that many people are giving, do not invest in cryptos and especially in Bitcoin and what and what not more than you can afford to lose, be cautious and it is best to be cautious and if you want to avoid it completely, no doubt that that will be the safest thing to do. Now, as for other cryptocurrencies,

00:41:19--> 00:41:59

as I said, this is a case by case basis and I don't think anybody can say that all cryptocurrencies are halal, because some of them are clearly Ponzi schemes. And some of them are clearly meant to deceive. Some of them are used for like they're meant to use for filth or pornography or how long so clearly, any crypto that is meant to be used for drugs and whatnot. So the purpose of it in other words, the name and the transaction, it is meant for haram there are specific niche specific a lot of people don't know this. There are niche specific cryptocurrencies. So for example, there's cryptocurrencies for dentists that's a valid cryptocurrency. There's cryptocurrencies for the types

00:41:59--> 00:42:33

of business transactions. There's cryptocurrencies for niche markets. They're saying this is going to be the way forward. Okay. I mean, I understand that, but there are cryptocurrencies for how long things as well, like drugs like alcohol, like manufacturers and whatnot. Clearly, those cryptocurrencies have no question about it. And they're also cryptocurrencies that seem to be very fake or Ponzi schemes, those two would be haram, but any currency that is based on your standard blockchain technology, and is established by large groups of people such that really it's impossible, really almost impossible, realistically impossible for it to collapse or become a Ponzi

00:42:33--> 00:43:06

scheme. Generally speaking, the default of the shady I would still be that these types of things are halal, whether they're wise or not, that is up to you to decide. And the default position that I would say is that do not get involved in Kryptos. Unless a you really know what you're doing. You have studied you have done your job researching and then B you only put it enough that you can really afford to lose if LaPadula something were to happen, then any it's a loss but it's not the end of your livelihood or life. So be wise the sharing I want you to protect your income and savings. And so with that, I respect the scholars who gave this photo I respect the council may

00:43:06--> 00:43:42

Allah azza wa jal interesting by the way, I have to say this, the country that said It is haram. Last week, the neighboring country, another Muslim majority country, their council said it is halal. So go figure you have two Muslim majority countries right. And one council said is haram and the council next door said it is halal. So again with utmost respect to our all of our viewers here and to the people of the council, you have to decide who do you trust and you have to decide whether the person that you're listening to really does understand what cryptocurrencies in Bitcoin is and whether they've done the research and whether they're qualified to issue the verdict you make that

00:43:42--> 00:44:00

decision and then leave the rest don't worry respect the other opinion and I respect to this council and the fact that it has given and you follow what you think is the better opinion will law who to either item and with that inshallah we come to the conclusion of today's lecture will continue being late to either in our next session until then somebody can work with you to catch up

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