Selling a banknote on credit

Question

Question: Zayd gave ‘Amr a one-rupee note to change, and ‘Amr immediately returned seventy-five paise (small copper coins, fractions of a rupee) and took twenty-five on credit. Is such a transaction permissible or not?

Answer

A banknote, by its original nature, is not property but a transfer (hawala) upon property. However, nowadays the rupee has become scarce, and for this reason the banknote itself has taken the rank of the rupee: all dealings with it are like those with the rupee, and for various reasons it is even preferred to the rupee.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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