Currency exchange didn’t exist at the time of the Prophet (PBUH), so more recently Mufti Taqi Usmani mentioned Hadith of the Prophet(s) and other established principles to be applied to issues arising in later ages totally nonexistent at the Prophet’s time. Using the same principle of Ijtihad Mufti Taqi Usmani concluded that dollar hoarding in such a situation was proving to be toxic to the country’s economy. He said the purchasing dollar in this critical economic situation is hoarding because it is against the country’s interest. He never explicitly said (where he should have) to invest in foreign currencies.
As so it is extrapolated, it wasn’t just about food but rather about hoarding in general that would trigger panic in the society at the lead to a situation where there is a scarcity of that commodity. The hadith was about hoarding in times of need and dollar hoarding is causing damage to the country right now. Buying a currency or a stock in hope of gain is a speculation business without any actual economic activity dealing in any financial instrument by just following the trends to gain some short-term benefit is not admissible.
