Gold and silver, the rules and the numbers.
What makes a gold purchase permissible, why paper gold is a problem, how zakat on gold works, and how Barqish shows the live price in rupees per tola with an honest trend reading. Education, not advice.
1. Why gold is different
In the Islamic framework gold and silver are ribawi items: the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) hadith on the six commodities requires that when they are exchanged for money or for each other, the exchange is hand to hand. In practice that means spot only: you pay today and you own the gold today. AAOIFI Shariah Standard 57 (2016) turned this into detailed rules for modern markets.
2. What is permitted and what is not
| Form | Status | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Physical gold, paid in full at purchase | Permitted | Spot exchange with immediate possession. |
| Allocated vault gold in your name | Permitted | Specific bars are yours; constructive possession is accepted by most scholars when the custodian is audited and redemption is real. |
| Gold-backed token or digital gold, allocated and redeemable | Conditional | Accepted by many scholars when settlement is immediate and the backing is verified; check the audits and redemption terms. |
| Unallocated gold account | Not permitted | The bank owes you gold; you own a debt, not metal. |
| Gold on instalments or deferred delivery | Not permitted | Deferral of either side breaks the hand-to-hand rule. |
| Futures, options, CFDs, leveraged gold | Not permitted | No real exchange, plus leverage and interest-like costs. |
| Gold jewellery | Permitted | Buying is fine; note making charges and buy-back discounts, and scholars differ on zakat for jewellery in regular use. |
3. Zakat on gold and silver
If your gold reaches the nisab of 87.48 g (about 7.5 tola) and you have held it for a lunar year, zakat is 2.5% of its current market value. Silver’s nisab is 612.36 g. Many scholars recommend using the lower silver nisab when your savings mix gold, cash and other assets, because it brings zakat due sooner and benefits the poor. The Barqish zakat calculator works in rupees and tola with live prices.
4. Reading the price in rupees
The world price is quoted in US dollars per troy ounce. Barqish converts it using the reference USD/PKR rate into rupees per tola, per 10 grams and per gram, and charts both the dollar price and the rupee-per-tola history. Two things move the rupee price: the dollar price of gold and the rupee itself. A weak rupee can lift the tola price even when gold is flat in dollars. Local Sarafa rates add a premium and jewellers add making charges, so treat the Barqish figure as the reference value, not a shop price.
5. How Barqish reads gold and silver
- Spot quotes from a public gold price feed, refreshed every ten minutes; the gold chart uses PAX Gold, a token where each unit is one troy ounce of allocated gold, so it tracks spot closely.
- The same three-step reading as every market: Favourable, Neutral or Cautious, from long-term averages, momentum, drawdown and volatility, with the drivers listed.
- A value calculator: grams, tola or ounces to rupees at today’s spot.
- No buying, selling, vaulting or brokerage. Barqish never touches your money or your gold.
Questions people ask
Is buying gold halal?
Yes, when it is bought at spot with immediate settlement: you pay and take ownership of the gold (physical, or allocated and held in your name) in the same session. Gold and silver are ribawi items, so deferred payment, deferred delivery, futures, options and leveraged contracts on gold are not permitted under AAOIFI Shariah Standard 57.
Is digital gold or a gold-backed token halal?
Scholars who accept it require that the gold is fully allocated (specific bars exist for you), that you can redeem it for physical metal, that ownership transfers immediately when you pay, and that the custodian is audited. Unallocated accounts, where the bank owes you gold but no specific bars are set aside, are widely considered impermissible because they are a debt of gold, not gold.
How much gold makes zakat due?
The nisab for gold is 87.48 grams (about 7.5 tola); for silver it is 612.36 grams (about 52.5 tola). If you hold at least that much for a lunar year, zakat is 2.5% of its market value. Many scholars advise using the silver nisab for mixed savings. The Barqish zakat calculator uses live gold and silver prices in rupees.
Why is the price in Pakistan quoted per tola?
One tola is 11.6638 grams, a traditional South Asian unit still used by jewellers and the Sarafa markets. Barqish converts the international spot price (dollars per troy ounce) into rupees per tola, per 10 grams and per gram using the reference USD/PKR rate. Jewellers add making charges and buy back below spot, so market rates differ from the reference value.
What does a Cautious reading on gold mean?
Only that gold is trading below its long-term averages or has been swinging widely. It is not a forecast of further falls and not a reason to sell what you hold. Gold is often held for reasons that have nothing to do with trend, such as savings, zakat planning or a wedding; the reading is context, not advice.
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Barqish is an educational platform. Readings describe market conditions and are never instructions to buy or sell. Screening is educational and not a fatwa; where scholars differ we say so. Updated 29 September 2026.