Fauzul Hanif Noor Athief

Lukmanul Hakim

Imron Rosyadi

Azidni Rofiqo

 

Abstract: Muslim scholars have given various opinions on the permissibility of digital wallet in Islamic law. The differences in these opinions have produced inconclusive results leaving the Muslim user of digital wallet perplexed. This article collects all of the scattered opinions of Muslim scholars on digital wallet and presents their critical review. Focusing on GoPay as Indonesian leading digital wallet, this article has adopted a systematic literature review method in collecting, classifying, and synthesising such opinions. A critical review of the collected opinions was then carried out using fiqh adaptation (takyif fiqh) approach, which allows a Muslim scholar to give fatwa (Islamic ruling) precisely on any modern issues through its four steps of analysis: 1) marhalatu al-tashwir (the depiction stage); 2) marhalatu al-takyif (the adaptation stage); 3) marhalatu al-hukm (the judgment stage); and 4) marhalatu al-ifta’ (the fatwa stage). This research finds that out of 18 articles, researchers referred to four different contract schemes for digital wallet: 1) wadiah (savings) in 4 articles; 2) qardh (loan) in 3 articles’ 3) ijarah (lease) in 7 articles; and 4) sarf (money exchange) in 1 article. Another 3 took a comparative approach to these contract schemes. While each of these contact schemes has its consequences on the permissibility of any type of discount provided by GoPay, the underlying assumption is that the GoPay services that fall within either of these contractual schemes are permissible under Shariah. Applying fiqh adaptation, this article concludes that the majority of these existing studies do not incorporate GoPay’s terms and conditions as well as Bank Indonesia’s regulations so they fail at the depiction stage (marhalatu al-tashwir). This article recommends that wadiah (savings) is the most appropriate underlying contract.