—even if the objects are of silver: whether worked into jewellery, broken pieces, stuffed, hollow, rough-cast, or ingots, every one of them may likewise be sold in bulk for dinars whose weight is known. Rough gold may also be bartered for rough silver, provided the exchange is hand-to-hand, for deferred payment is unlawful in any of these cases.
According to Mālik it is impermissible to sell dinars for dirhams in unspecified amounts, though he does allow the exchange by count, just as merchandise may be traded for either currency by count. Gold jewellery may not be exchanged for an equal weight of gold with an additional payment for the craftsman’s labour, and the same ruling applies to silver: the goldsmith may not take a wage for his workmanship on top of the metal’s weight.
Fashioned silver jewellery may be sold for dirhams, weight for weight, so long as it is not stuffed with another material; likewise, gold jewellery may be exchanged for dinars, weight for weight and hand-to-hand, provided nothing else is hidden inside. None of these transactions may be deferred.
Mālik further rules that part of a dinar may not be exchanged unless the coin is cut on the spot; the same applies to a lump, an anklet, and similar items, until no joint ownership remains between the parties—unless the piece already belongs to his partner and is merely being spent with him, in which case it is permissible.
Mālik disliked cutting dinar and dirham coins, considering it—following Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab—a form of corruption on earth, and he held that the ruler should punish it. In my view, this refers to substitute coins that may not lawfully be cut and that do not circulate like sound currency; and Allah knows best.
Mālik likewise disapproved of salam contracts in copper coins (fulūs), of demanding repayment in them, and of selling some of them for others on deferred terms; he allowed such dealings only hand-to-hand. Other scholars of the Hijaz and Iraq permitted all of this, treating fulūs as subsidiary to their underlying metal.
Whoever is in debt, whether for a loan or for the price of a purchase—