MBitcoiner on Nostr: We get asked why we don't have an essay about Bitcoin being halal on Bitcoin Majlis. ...
We get asked why we don't have an essay about Bitcoin being halal on Bitcoin Majlis. There's a very good reason for that.
It's simply because we are not scholars. We are not even students. It's not really our place to comment whether bitcoin is definitively halal or haram from a Fiqh perspective. That task is up to the scholars.
Besides, even if we spent hundreds of hours on the perfect essay unequivocally demonstrating how bitcoin is halal, all a fiat Muslim would have to do is claim that we are not scholars. Bam! The entire essay would be demolished.
Instead, from operating from the assumption that Riba is haram, we've opted to write and speak about the history and nature of money and economics, the actual Riba problem with fiat money, the harmful effects of this problem, how a gold standard, Islamic banking, and "crypto" do not solve this problem, and why we believe bitcoin fixes this.
Should the scholar come across our content, he will have to contend with the fact the fiat money that the entire ummah is currently using is completely Riba based. If he wishes to be thorough, he will have to address the problem as he makes his ruling on bitcoin. The discussion of the Riba money problem is curiously absent from current rulings, and this needs to change.
We think this method is more strategic in the long term than just simply declaring that Bitcoin is halal, as it more likely compels the fiat Muslim, assuming he is able to read and think, to engage with the content rather than just dismissing it.
It's simply because we are not scholars. We are not even students. It's not really our place to comment whether bitcoin is definitively halal or haram from a Fiqh perspective. That task is up to the scholars.
Besides, even if we spent hundreds of hours on the perfect essay unequivocally demonstrating how bitcoin is halal, all a fiat Muslim would have to do is claim that we are not scholars. Bam! The entire essay would be demolished.
Instead, from operating from the assumption that Riba is haram, we've opted to write and speak about the history and nature of money and economics, the actual Riba problem with fiat money, the harmful effects of this problem, how a gold standard, Islamic banking, and "crypto" do not solve this problem, and why we believe bitcoin fixes this.
Should the scholar come across our content, he will have to contend with the fact the fiat money that the entire ummah is currently using is completely Riba based. If he wishes to be thorough, he will have to address the problem as he makes his ruling on bitcoin. The discussion of the Riba money problem is curiously absent from current rulings, and this needs to change.
We think this method is more strategic in the long term than just simply declaring that Bitcoin is halal, as it more likely compels the fiat Muslim, assuming he is able to read and think, to engage with the content rather than just dismissing it.