The Benefit of Competition and Newspaper Prizes

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Question:
Is it permissible to benefit from prizes that a person receives simply for entering a competition or subscribing to a newspaper?

Answer:
Competitions involving money are not permissible. The default ruling regarding people's wealth is prohibition, as Allah the Exalted said:

O you who have believed, do not consume one another's wealth unjustly but only [in lawful] business by mutual consent

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَأْكُلُوا أَمْوَالَكُم بَيْنَكُم بِالْبَاطِلِ إِلَّا أَن تَكُونَ تِجَارَةً عَن تَرَاضٍ مِّنكُمْ

[An-Nisa 4:29]

The default ruling regarding people's wealth is prohibition, except what is obtained through a lawful transaction or from the generosity of the owner of the wealth. It is not permissible to take money for prizes except in three cases. As the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the hadith:

There is no racing,

لا سبق،

The race is the prize. There is no racing except in three things: in a spear,

No stake is acceptable except in archery, racing a camel, and racing a horse.

لاَ سَبَقَ إِلاَّ فِي نَصْلٍ أَوْ خُفٍّ أَوْ حَافِرٍ

Jami` at-Tirmidhi 1700Hasan (Darussalam)

, meaning racing in archery, this is the spear, or in a hoof, meaning racing on camels, or in a hoof, meaning racing on horses. Because these three matters are among the means of jihad, practicing them teaches the means of jihad in the path of Allah. So there is no harm in taking prizes in these three matters. Some scholars included matters of Islamic knowledge in this, taking prizes for Islamic knowledge, competing in Islamic knowledge, because this falls under jihad in the path of Allah.

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

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