Opinion of his Excellency Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani about Cryptocurrency trading.

Today I visited the august Office of my beloved Teacher his Excellency  Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani and raised a question about the Shariah permissibility of Cryptocurrency trading; since currently its use is trending for business purposes. So much so that it is becoming the basis for creation of various financial institutions, and many countries are in the process of regulating it on a state level. So, in the current scenario, how should the Shariah Scholars guide the masses who are continuously enquiring its shariah status?

Answer by Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani.

“For now, we are not satisfied with it. It is mostly being used for speculative purposes. Personally, I won’t recommend it. Rather it seems to be impermissible in principle. However, it could happen that in the future, its use may expand for real trade and we might have to revisit the current decision.

There is no doubt that this currency is speculative in nature. Even its mass use is  not likeable either from Shariah perspective. This is a part of an international underplot. Initially, paper currency was enforced and now world is being pushed to digital currency which is not backed by any asset.  The near future plan is maybe to make the economies dependent  upon these, and subsequently these money masters will financially enslave the weaker economies. Therefore , we cannot encourage it and, as per fiqh, there is no sound ground devised till yet to grant its permissibility”

[Note: I produced this transcript to his Excellency Mufti Saheb and he endorsed it for general dissemination.]

Written by Dr Mufti Muhammad Wasle Fasih Butt.

Student of Mufti Taqi Usmani Saheb

Dated May 10 2021.