Selling the New Yemeni Currency for the Old Yemeni Currency

Question:

The old Yemeni currency is only in the Houthi-controlled regions. Is it permissible to sell the new currency for the old currency? For example, he sells two thousand [riyals] of the new currency for one thousand [riyals] of the old currency.

Answer:

“It is ḥarām—usury—because the currency is one, not different.

The Yemeni currency is one, and the people have indeed been dealing with this currency as a single currency and [this country as] a single country for a period of time, and that is still the case. So, this transaction is usury.

One thousand for two thousand, or one thousand for five hundred, or more, or less—it is all ḥarām. [It must be] one thousand for one thousand without any extra.

As for if the currencies are separate—the Saudi currency and the Yemeni currency, for example—then there is no problem: one thousand Saudi riyals for three hundred Yemeni, or five hundred Saudi riyals for one hundred and fifty Yemeni, because the currencies differ.

Likewise, there is also no problem with [buying] the dollar with the Yemeni or Saudi currency because the currencies differ.

As for buying the Yemeni with the Yemeni with extra, this is ḥarām.”

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Answered by: Shaykh Abū Bilāl al-Ḥaḍramī (May Allāh preserve him)

Source : https://t.me/abubilalhami/9033

Translated by: Abū Sufyān Sāmī ibn Daniel al-Ghānī