Why leveraged and future trading is Haram in Islam? And how Binance can fix this?
There are about 1.9 billion Muslims around the world. Many of them would like to get involved in trading activities. However many trading modes are considered illegal (Haram) in Islam.
Some platforms would claim that their activities and trading modes are compliant with Islam rules (SHARIA) which is sadly incorrect. As a Muslim, I have conducted my own search, consulted different Islamic authorities and came up with the bottom line to share with everyone, especially with Binance themselves.
Considering Forex, margin and future contracts Haram in Islam is based on 2 main points. Which, if Binance can solve, would expose their services to a wide community of 1.9 billion persons.
1. Leverage is Haram because the platform takes money in exchange of lending the trader. However profit sharing is not Haram. So what the platform can do is to charge successful trade fees. And charge no fees on unsuccessful trades. On the other hand, the fees can be relatively high to cover the platform fees in case of failed trades. A Win-win deal.
2. Margin and future trading is Haram because it is not legal in Islam to sell what you don't own. To solve this, the platform can transfer the leveraged amount to the trader account for only the purpose of opening this or that trade. At closing of the position, the platform can withdraw this borrowed amount back. Of course the platform can find a way to lock this amount to be used only for opening the trade.
Spot trading is Halal. But we all know it is not as profitable as future trading. š
Please feel free to share your ideas.