Central Bank of Malaysia economists (Ahmad Khairuddin, Mohamad Falah Noor Azmir, Siti Nurul Ain Zakaria and Mohammad Raji Musa) in this working paper:
The essence of modern money, where it comes from, and how it works are widely misunderstood. An accurate understanding of modern money is key in forming the basis for further Shariah deliberation on its applicable rulings. Theoretical and historical accounts of money extracted from various social disciplines, supported by balance sheet mechanics, are used in this paper to shed light on and answer the fundamental question: ‘What is modern money?’
Based on this, Shariah analysis on modern money is conducted, taking into consideration classical Shariah conception and historical perspective of money in the past Islamic civilisations. This paper concludes that the essence of modern money is a credit relation and
promise to pay abstract value, constituted by social (economic and political) relations between individuals, banks, central bank and the state. This updated understanding of modern money – as affirmed by monetary authorities across various jurisdictions – exposes fundamental gaps in applying classical Shariah conception of money in the modern context.
To explain more accurately and comprehensively the concept of modern money from Shariah perspective, the authors attempt to explore a hybrid approach in which modern money may take a set of rulings of both nuqud istilahiyyah and dayn (debt). This is in view that modern money functions both as a means of payment and as a means of funding or credit/debt instrument. In this regard, all the rules of riba on
debt deferment, riba on loan, and riba in exchange (riba al-buyu`) would also be applicable to modern money.
Mostly Economics 
