Dinar and  Dirham are the Judge of Mu’amalat and Authority is their Protector. Without Authority, people will mint dinars and  dirhams without regulation or responsibility, leading to the risk of  wrongdoing.

 Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him, related that Rasulullah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: “Whoever obeys me, truly obeys Allah, and whoever disobeys me has truly disobeyed Allah. Whoever obeys my Amir has truly obeyed me. Whoever disobeys my Amir has truly disobeyed me.” (Bukhari, Muslim) 

This is the time of the expansion of the call to restore the pillar of Zakat, and the Muamalat in Indonesia is beginning to shine. The enthusiasm of the people towards the Prophetic currency of the dinar and dirham is very high. However, the popularity of the dinar and dirham has begun to be exploited by certain persons for seeking profits for their personal ambitions and groups, without paying heed to shar’ic rules. They argue that anyone at all may mint and distribute the dinar  and  dirham for the sake of the greatness of da’wa and that what is important is only that the standard is uniform. Is their action halal? It is most certainly haram!

 It is precisely the da’wa that their action damages, bringing about a new and fatal wrongdoing. The reason being that people become confused and will end up in disputation because there is probably no-one else who is capable of maintaining the content and  weight of the dinar and  dirham, because many of them are parties who are issuing coins without rightful authority. The lustre of gold and silver without rightful control will certainly victimise many people because later coin forgers will pirate the dinar  and  dirham unimpeded. 

History records that Rasulullah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had already fixed the weights and measures in 2 H, along with fixing the standards of the dinar and  dirham as a Prophetic currency. Nevertheless, he did not yet have the opportunity to mint his own coins and it was also like that at the time Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, became Khalifah – there was still not yet a coin of his own. But it doesn’t mean that the people were free to randomly decide the content and  weight of the dinars and  dirhams. In fact, at that time there were several types of dinar and dirham coins, many circulating in Madinah. They had to adhere to the regulation of the standard that was already established. Occasionally, overweight coins had to be cut with a blade in order that their weight was precise, because Rasulullah himself, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had threatened by means of the text of the above-mentioned hadith. 

Its importance as the Prophetic currency for the use of the Ummah was also like that at the time of the Khalifah Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him. He captured several enemy personnel from Persia who were mint masters. He immediately commanded them to mint the dirham of Islam, firstly in the year 20 H. Due to the respectful manner of the Khalifah towards these prisoners each mint master eventually became Muslim. From the results of their craft the Ummah of Islam, from generation to generation, has received the fixed dinar and dirham coin standard just as it had been determined by the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. 

There is an interesting matter here. Why did Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, give priority to minting the Prophetic currency rather than to putting the Qur’an into book form? The reason is that the Qur’an was already guaranteed by Allah, subhanahu wa ta’ala, and the Muslim people were preserving it by memorisation, whereas the content and weight of the dinar and  dirham had to be guaranteed by the holders of authority, such as the Khalifahs, Sultans and Amirs. 

In the Muqaddima (p.323) Ibn Khaldun explains the importance of minting coins and that it is included as a task of the Khalifah. He says: “That (minting coins) is one of the main duties of the Sultan because by that, people can differentiate between what is pure and what is adulterated money.”  Because if people are allowed to mint money it will certainly create chaos and  oppression, even if that money is minted with pure gold. From this we are able to summarise that whosoever mints Dinar and Dirham without authority is in rebellion against one’s Amir (leader) which therefore means rebellion against Allah and His Messenger.

STANDARDISATION OF WITO and WIM

In today’s context, when there is no longer a Khilafah or Sultan who is clinging to the Sunnah, in 1992 a body of overseers was formed by Prof. Umar Ibrahim Vadillo to regulate the production of, and transacting with, dinars and  dirhams at an international level, namely, the World Islamic Trading Organisation (WITO) and, later, the World Islamic Mint (WIM). The first WITO dinar and  dirham coins were also minted in that year in Granada, Spain. In determining the content and weight for the WITO coins he initially studied  masses of ancient Islamic literature including rare but sound hadith, as well as obtaining physical dinar and dirham coins of the standard issued by Khalifah Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, in 20H. This constituted a revolutionary endeavour for the restoration of the refinement of Islam which nowadays feels alien. 

Afterwards, with a straight and upright intention, he visited national Islamic leaders in every corner of the world in order to present his evidence. Alhamdulillah, there were many who accepted that the Prophetic currency must be revived again. Consequently, we are presently able to experience the outcome of this. They are, among others: Dr Necmettin Erbakan (PM Turkey, 1997) Dr. Mahathir Mohammad (PM Malaysia, 2000), Emir of Dubai (2001), Parliament of the Sudan, Mullah Omar (2000), and Susilo Bambang Yudhyono (Pres. Republic of Indonesia 2007), Sultan of Kelantan (Malaysia 2007) and so on. His work epitomises the principle of fiqh: “Knowledge before action and action before talk.” 

In Kelantan the authority for issuing the dinar and dirham is held by the local government, i.e. the Sultanate of Kelantan, with a special umbrella organisation that is formed by it, yet consistent in following the WITO standard. In Indonesia although we don’t take the above-mentioned authority, since the year 2000, by way of BUMN PT Antam Tbk UBPP Logam Mulia, facilities had already been made available for the issuing of this Prophetic currency which was entrusted by WITO and WIM to the Amirate of Indonesia under the leadership of Mr. Zaim Saidi in October 2008, replacing the previous authority, the Amirate of Nusantara (which was dissolved in 2004), as well as the local Amirate in Jakarta which was also eventually dissolved in 2009. 

With the above-mentioned authority, Wakala Induk Nusantara (WIN) officially issues dinars and dirhams which can be accepted in all corners of the world (WIN dinars and dirhams also circulate in South Africa, Germany, England, Spain, Morocco, Malaysia and Singapore). As a result, there are automatically various parties in our country that now persist in issuing dinar and dirham without authority, constituting an illegal piracy of the coins of WITO and WIM. 

Amirs of other Muslim jama’ahs in this country are also invited to join in and play a role in this matter, as one front with one leadership. Parties who have the desire to issue their coins themselves with the stamp of the jama’ah must follow a procedure that is valid in order to obtain WITO and WIM standardisation. And all this (coins) is not a business matter of gold and silver! Rather, it constitutes a matter of Shari’ah which must be upheld. Because by the upholding of the pillar of Zakat and the Shar’i Muamalat using Prophetic currency, by every leader of the Muslim Jama’ahs, insha Allah, triumph and victory for the Ummah of Islam will soon come.