Horse races with monetary prizes
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Q: There are, O Shaykh, horse races held in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under the supervision of the Equestrian Club, and this club provides material and monetary prizes. These prizes consist of cars and sums of money. Initially, registration for these prizes was done in a normal way without paying any fees. However, as the years passed and the number of horses increased, registration for these prizes involved such large numbers of horses that not all of them could participate, because the starting gate, which is the device where the horses line up before the race begins, has a capacity of only twenty horses. With these increasing numbers of horses, which sometimes reach forty horses in a single race, the club was forced to hold a lottery among the registered horses, and the horses exceeding the capacity of the starting gate are drawn out. In these races, excellent horses that are most likely to win are entered, and by entering them in the lottery with horses of a lower level, it may happen that the excellent horses are drawn out and thus prevented from participating in that race. For this reason, a fee was established for participating in these material and monetary prizes, by agreement among the horse owners to limit random registration. The value of this fee is one thousand riyals for each participating horse. These fees are collected, along with the car and the monetary prize, and distributed among the top five places.
The first place winner receives the car, while the second, third, fourth, and fifth places receive the monetary prize in addition to the fees. We hope you will issue a ruling for us, may Allah reward you, regarding these fees: are they permissible or not?
A: It is not permissible for the club to take money from people whose horses did not participate in the race, as there is no valid legal basis for doing so. And Allah the Exalted says:[An-Nisa 4:29].
The first place winner receives the car, while the second, third, fourth, and fifth places receive the monetary prize in addition to the fees. We hope you will issue a ruling for us, may Allah reward you, regarding these fees: are they permissible or not?
A: It is not permissible for the club to take money from people whose horses did not participate in the race, as there is no valid legal basis for doing so. And Allah the Exalted says:
do not consume one another's wealth unjustly but only [in lawful] business by mutual consent
لا تَأْكُلُوا أَمْوَالَكُمْ بَيْنَكُمْ بِالْبَاطِلِ إِلا أَنْ تَكُونَ تِجَارَةً عَنْ تَرَاضٍ مِنْكُمْ
Source
www.alifta.gov.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.