Beyond the halal–haram dichotomy: A gharar-based shariah screening framework for crypto-assets in Islamic digital finance
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29040/jiei.v12i5.20831Keywords:
Crypto-assets, Fiqh muamalah, Gharar, Islamic digital finance, Shariah screeningAbstract
Crypto-assets create new opportunities for Islamic digital finance, yet they also raise unresolved Shariah concerns related to uncertainty, ownership, delivery, disclosure, legal enforceability, custody, and speculation. This study develops a gharar-based Shariah screening framework for evaluating crypto-assets beyond the conventional halal–haram dichotomy. Using a conceptual narrative literature review, this study synthesizes Scopus-indexed literature on cryptocurrency, crypto-assets, gharar, excessive uncertainty, Shariah screening, Islamic finance, and Islamic digital finance, supported by selected regulatory and fatwa documents. The review finds that gharar in crypto-asset transactions is multidimensional, emerging from unclear asset backing, weak utility, ambiguous ownership rights, uncertain qabd and deliverability, limited disclosure, legal uncertainty, custody risk, price volatility, and speculative intensity. To address this issue, the study distinguishes ordinary commercial risk, gharar yasir, and gharar fahish as three levels of uncertainty in Islamic commercial transactions. The proposed framework translates these findings into a category-based Shariah screening matrix built around eight dimensions: asset backing, utility, ownership clarity, qabd and deliverability, disclosure, legal certainty, custody security, and speculative intensity. This matrix allows stablecoins, asset-backed tokens, security tokens, decentralized finance assets, and meme coins to be assessed according to their specific uncertainty profiles rather than treated as one homogeneous category. The study contributes to fiqh muamalah and Islamic digital finance by repositioning gharar from a prohibitive legal label into an evaluative framework. The framework may support Shariah boards, regulators, Islamic fintech platforms, and Muslim investors in conducting pre-listing review, risk disclosure, and category-based crypto-asset assessment.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Muhammad Ahsanul Amal, Mukhamad Yazid Afandi, Muhammad Imran, Arta Amaliah Nur Afifah, Dewi Inayatul Sakinah
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
