What is the ruling on coupons that are collected to receive gifts from markets and commercial establishments?
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Question:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This questioner asks: What is the ruling on coupons that are collected to receive gifts from markets and commercial establishments?
Answer:
This is a waste of money and advertising; it is advertising by the owners of shops for their shops. It is competition between shops that harms people, corrupts the markets, and causes some to harm others. The one who does not do advertising does not get customers, and this harms the Muslims. This is an action that is not permissible. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade intercepting travelers.
And he said, "A resident should not sell for a traveler." All of this is for the sake of preserving the benefit of the Muslims and preventing competition among them, so that the one who brings goods to the market brings them, and the one who wants to buy buys. But if he meets him before he reaches the town and buys from him, it harms the Muslims and harms the people of the market. So there is harm to those who do not do these prizes or these incentives among the shop owners; there is harm to them. And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "There is no harm and no reciprocating harm." This is from one aspect. The second aspect is that we mentioned to you a little while ago that the original ruling for prizes in competitions is prohibition; the original ruling is prohibition, except for what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) excluded, which is only the spear, the saddle, and the horse. Otherwise, they are from consuming the wealth of people without right. So in these, it is gathered that they are from gambling and from maysir (gambling), and that they also harm the Muslims, harming the shop owners who do not do such actions and such advertising. Yes. And it is obligatory to prevent this manipulation and to prevent these commercial competitions and these prizes. Decisions have been issued by the Council of Senior Scholars and answers by the Permanent Committee forbidding them. Yes.
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This questioner asks: What is the ruling on coupons that are collected to receive gifts from markets and commercial establishments?
Answer:
This is a waste of money and advertising; it is advertising by the owners of shops for their shops. It is competition between shops that harms people, corrupts the markets, and causes some to harm others. The one who does not do advertising does not get customers, and this harms the Muslims. This is an action that is not permissible. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade intercepting travelers.
And he said, "A resident should not sell for a traveler." All of this is for the sake of preserving the benefit of the Muslims and preventing competition among them, so that the one who brings goods to the market brings them, and the one who wants to buy buys. But if he meets him before he reaches the town and buys from him, it harms the Muslims and harms the people of the market. So there is harm to those who do not do these prizes or these incentives among the shop owners; there is harm to them. And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "There is no harm and no reciprocating harm." This is from one aspect. The second aspect is that we mentioned to you a little while ago that the original ruling for prizes in competitions is prohibition; the original ruling is prohibition, except for what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) excluded, which is only the spear, the saddle, and the horse. Otherwise, they are from consuming the wealth of people without right. So in these, it is gathered that they are from gambling and from maysir (gambling), and that they also harm the Muslims, harming the shop owners who do not do such actions and such advertising. Yes. And it is obligatory to prevent this manipulation and to prevent these commercial competitions and these prizes. Decisions have been issued by the Council of Senior Scholars and answers by the Permanent Committee forbidding them. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما حكم الكوبونات التي تُجمع لأخذ الهدايا من الأسواق والمحال التجارية؟ لمعالي الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.