The topic of Forex trading prohibition in Islam is vast and controversial. Many points of view exist on different aspects of on-line Forex trading including — spot trading, futures and options trading, margin trading, overnight interest, etc. The majority of the Islamic jurists agrees that Forex trading can comply with Sharia only if it is spot trading (while futures and options are considered to earn Riba) and if it doesn’t involve any overnight interest (or interest hid by commissions, though Muslim traders should know that not all commissions are to hide overnight interest). One of the main point of debate lies in margin trading (almost every transaction in Forex is based on margin) and hedging (it is compared to futures trading usually). Dr. Mohammed Obaidullah of Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (located in Malaysia) discusses this topic in his article — Islamic Forex Trading. It is a well grounded article covering every aspect of Forex trading and providing references to the fundamental Islamic sources. Among other things, Dr. Mohammed Obaidullah proves margin Forex trading to be legal for Muslims, as long as it doesn’t involve any Riba (unlike some other Islamic jurists who look at margin Forex trading as forbidden activity). In this articles the Forex hedging is also analysed and is seen as the source of Riba income. I strongly recommend reading this article to all Muslim traders and those who want to start trading Forex while remaining a lawful Islamic believer.
I also recommend looking at the list of the Forex broker that offer Muslim-friendly trading accounts with no overnight-interest applied on the open positions.
Some important things have changed in Islamic Forex since this article had last been updated. In February 16, 2012, the National Fatwa Council of Malaysia (nation’s supreme Islamic legal body) announced that spot Forex trading performed by individual traders (contrary to authorized dealers) is considered haram (sinful). Technically, it restricts all Muslim residents of Malaysia from participating in online foreign exchange trading. It is important to add that no other Muslim fatwa institution in other countries has issued similar prohibition. On the contrary, National Sharia Board of Indonesia had previous issued a fatwa (the link is in Indonesian) stating the legality of Forex. Apparently, the situation with Islamic Forex trading still remains quite unclear.
And what do you think about legality of currency trading for Islamic believers?
