Buying gold bars through an app

A question about buying gold bars through an app, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that trading gold through the app is permitted if possession is achieved by one of four recognised means and forbidden otherwise, and that reselling to the same dealer is acceptable when there was no prior agreement. ¹

The questioner described a gold dealer's app in which a customer deposits money, buys a bar at the live world price, has its full price deducted and the bar recorded in his account with complete freedom to dispose of it, and asked whether this counts as valid possession and whether he may resell the bar to the same dealer when the price rises. ¹

The Department answered that Islam is strict about selling the commodities subject to riba, citing the hadith narrated by Muslim on the six commodities; gold exchanged for gold requires equal weight and possession in the session of the contract, while gold sold for currency requires only possession in the session. ¹ It listed the means by which possession of gold is achieved: the buyer takes the bar himself in the session; his agent takes it; the bar is designated by numbers and marks that distinguish it and the buyer is enabled to dispose of it; or it is held under certificates in licensed vaults governed by regulations, with the vault operator acting as agent for the certificate holder, referring to Shari'a Standard No. 57 for Islamic financial institutions. ¹ It said many speculative gold trades observe none of these controls; if possession occurs by one of the four means, trading is permitted, and if not, it is forbidden. ¹ On reselling the bar to the same dealer, it said the principle is to sell it to someone else to avoid the prohibited 'ina sale, but if this happens without any prior agreement or intention, there is no objection, provided the earlier conditions of sale are met. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 4437, dated 9 April 2026. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.