copper coins (fulūs) before the term fell due, just as he disapproved of exchanging fulūs for gold or silver on deferred terms.
Once the deadline arrives, however, it is unobjectionable to take gold against silver or silver against gold at the day’s exchange rate and in whatever amount the parties choose, on condition that they do not part while any portion of the exchange remains outstanding.
If an instalment of house-rent or the hire of a slave has matured, there is likewise no harm in receiving dinars instead of dirhams or dirhams instead of dinars; but if that instalment has not yet become due, the exchange is impermissible.
Whenever a person has parted with gold or silver as pre-payment (salam) for some commodity, he may not resell that commodity to its original seller—before taking possession of it—for gold if his salam payment was in silver, nor for silver if his salam payment was in gold. In Mālik’s view this amounts to deferred currency exchange, whether or not the delivery date of the commodity has arrived.
He may, however, take back gold for gold or silver for silver, matching the original in form, specie, quality and weight, for Mālik treats this as a cancellation of the contract and a courteous concession, not a sale or a bargain.
If a man is owed one dinar and wishes to convert it into dirhams, taking a specified amount at every instalment date, none of that is permissible. But if, at each instalment, he takes a portion of that dinar—whether in gold or in silver—at the prevailing exchange rate on the day he receives it, there is no harm in that, provided there had been no prior commitment to do so.
When one party is owed dinars by another while himself owing that person dirhams, each may offset what he owes with what he is owed; they settle their accounts and part company, provided both debts have fallen due.
There is no objection to selling uncoined silver lumps in bulk for dinars whose weight is known, or uncoined gold ingots in bulk for dirhams of known weight. Likewise, wrought gold jewellery and broken gold may each be sold in bulk for dirhams of established weight, even if—