What is the ruling on religious competitions where the total value of the prizes comes from tickets that are sold, and the money for them is collected from the competitors themselves?
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The questioner : Shaykh: Right now, there is actually a matter present in the mosques and schools, and some of our brothers—may Allah reform us and them, if Allah wills—are running it.
The Shaykh : Amen.
The questioner : Shaykh: It is a competition. These are well-known religious question competitions, but the matter I want to speak about is that the competition is sold. I mean, the competition is a paper, and sometimes it is sold for ten qirsh.
The Shaykh: Allahu Akbar.
The questioner : Shaykh: This competition, of course, the selling is on the pretext that we want to buy prizes. So where do we get them? We collect this money in this way and buy the prizes with it and distribute them. What is the Shari'ah ruling on this? May Allah reward you with good? Is this a religious innovation?
The Shaykh : Shaykh: What is the competition about?
The questioner : The competition is about religious questions.
The Shaykh : Religious questions.
The Shaykh : Shaykh: Religious questions. Yes, they come to the mosques or schools, and the students or the youth in the mosque sell them for five qirsh, or ten qirsh, or less, or more than that. What is the ruling on this method?
The Shaykh : Shaykh: By Allah, before answering this, one should grasp its reality to the last stage of the stages.
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : Shaykh: Let us assume now that the tickets put up for sale had a value, for example, of one hundred dinars. And the questions were put up. If we imagine that those who participated in paying were one hundred people, and each successful person in answering has a reward equal to one dinar. Of course, this is a representation and not intended to be specific. So those who answered were fifty, and they had a balance of fifty dinars remaining, correct?
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : Shaykh: What do they do with these fifty dinars?
The questioner : I do not know.
The Shaykh : Shaykh: You may not really know, but I want now to arrive at knowing this ruling, or the ruling on this transaction. So I will depict a picture: if a group of people partnered with each other, they partnered and paid what they paid, and bought a prize, such that the one who succeeds in the answer gets this prize, with the consent of their souls. So initially, I say this is permissible. I say initially, keep this in mind, because it is possible that we will double it later, so be cautious.
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : Shaykh: Ah, but I do not know that there is a ticket being sold, so I buy it in order to obtain the reward that was saved for me in case I win. And the reality is that some people must lose and some people must win. And in the end, there must be money available with the group, or a charitable association, or call it whatever you like. There must be money available with them. I then say this is gambling. I say this is gambling, because the one who participated in that transaction is not the one who participated in this transaction.
The questioner : Correct.
The Shaykh : Shaykh: So I consider that transaction, which you asked about, if nothing returns to all the subscribers of the tickets, and with the consent of everyone, as we depicted in our picture, it is like the lottery they call the charitable lottery. It returns to the first picture, where I say I might double it. This competition, if it is for a worldly matter and with the consent of everyone, there is no objection. But if it is, for example, to encourage memorizing the Qur'an, or studying knowledge and hadith, this is contrary to what they were commanded in the saying of Allah the Exalted:[Al-Bayyinah 98:5] So the point in the previous example is that the group all know that this money will return to one of them, and they are willing in their souls, but it does not have to be a competition on a religious matter; let it be on a worldly matter.
The questioner : Yes, may Allah reward you with good.
The Shaykh : Shaykh: Is it clear?
The questioner : Clear, yes.
Another questioner : Every paper has a number.
The Shaykh : Shaykh: Okay, every paper means a lottery.
The questioner : Every paper has a number. The paper that has a number, this is not in order to, I mean, they do a short lottery. It has a number so that no one, I mean, prints similar papers like it. I mean, one person took number twelve, so-and-so took number ten. The number is known. This number, we look at it, and if it is, I mean, in the hundreds, they make five qirsh, they approximate it on the machine, the left one, it comes out like this, a thousand for five qirsh. This is the price of the papers, this is a thousand. Well, the prizes they put in the back, they want to win them all. If it came out for everyone, it would not come out for a thousand, while I print for three and a half thousand, approximately the price of the papers, or a library.
Another questioner : Shaykh: It is a company in the mosques and schools. Actually, it is not like this. Actually, the Muslim Brotherhood innovated it, unfortunately.
The Shaykh : Shaykh: Allahu Akbar. It spread among them. They print papers, ordinary, like this competition, two, three, five papers, and sell them for ten qirsh, fifteen, twenty. Then you submit your answers. Later they look at the correct answers, how many, for example, let us assume one hundred percent. They choose ten according to the prizes they have, and they give to the ten, and the rest lose. Yes, this is unfortunately widespread.
The Shaykh : Shaykh: Gambling, my sir. The causes are many, and death is one.
The Shaykh : Amen.
The questioner : Shaykh: It is a competition. These are well-known religious question competitions, but the matter I want to speak about is that the competition is sold. I mean, the competition is a paper, and sometimes it is sold for ten qirsh.
The Shaykh: Allahu Akbar.
The questioner : Shaykh: This competition, of course, the selling is on the pretext that we want to buy prizes. So where do we get them? We collect this money in this way and buy the prizes with it and distribute them. What is the Shari'ah ruling on this? May Allah reward you with good? Is this a religious innovation?
The Shaykh : Shaykh: What is the competition about?
The questioner : The competition is about religious questions.
The Shaykh : Religious questions.
The Shaykh : Shaykh: Religious questions. Yes, they come to the mosques or schools, and the students or the youth in the mosque sell them for five qirsh, or ten qirsh, or less, or more than that. What is the ruling on this method?
The Shaykh : Shaykh: By Allah, before answering this, one should grasp its reality to the last stage of the stages.
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : Shaykh: Let us assume now that the tickets put up for sale had a value, for example, of one hundred dinars. And the questions were put up. If we imagine that those who participated in paying were one hundred people, and each successful person in answering has a reward equal to one dinar. Of course, this is a representation and not intended to be specific. So those who answered were fifty, and they had a balance of fifty dinars remaining, correct?
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : Shaykh: What do they do with these fifty dinars?
The questioner : I do not know.
The Shaykh : Shaykh: You may not really know, but I want now to arrive at knowing this ruling, or the ruling on this transaction. So I will depict a picture: if a group of people partnered with each other, they partnered and paid what they paid, and bought a prize, such that the one who succeeds in the answer gets this prize, with the consent of their souls. So initially, I say this is permissible. I say initially, keep this in mind, because it is possible that we will double it later, so be cautious.
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : Shaykh: Ah, but I do not know that there is a ticket being sold, so I buy it in order to obtain the reward that was saved for me in case I win. And the reality is that some people must lose and some people must win. And in the end, there must be money available with the group, or a charitable association, or call it whatever you like. There must be money available with them. I then say this is gambling. I say this is gambling, because the one who participated in that transaction is not the one who participated in this transaction.
The questioner : Correct.
The Shaykh : Shaykh: So I consider that transaction, which you asked about, if nothing returns to all the subscribers of the tickets, and with the consent of everyone, as we depicted in our picture, it is like the lottery they call the charitable lottery. It returns to the first picture, where I say I might double it. This competition, if it is for a worldly matter and with the consent of everyone, there is no objection. But if it is, for example, to encourage memorizing the Qur'an, or studying knowledge and hadith, this is contrary to what they were commanded in the saying of Allah the Exalted:
And they were not commanded except to worship Allah, [being] sincere to Him in religion
وما أمروا إلا ليعبدوا الله مخلصين له الدينThe questioner : Yes, may Allah reward you with good.
The Shaykh : Shaykh: Is it clear?
The questioner : Clear, yes.
Another questioner : Every paper has a number.
The Shaykh : Shaykh: Okay, every paper means a lottery.
The questioner : Every paper has a number. The paper that has a number, this is not in order to, I mean, they do a short lottery. It has a number so that no one, I mean, prints similar papers like it. I mean, one person took number twelve, so-and-so took number ten. The number is known. This number, we look at it, and if it is, I mean, in the hundreds, they make five qirsh, they approximate it on the machine, the left one, it comes out like this, a thousand for five qirsh. This is the price of the papers, this is a thousand. Well, the prizes they put in the back, they want to win them all. If it came out for everyone, it would not come out for a thousand, while I print for three and a half thousand, approximately the price of the papers, or a library.
Another questioner : Shaykh: It is a company in the mosques and schools. Actually, it is not like this. Actually, the Muslim Brotherhood innovated it, unfortunately.
The Shaykh : Shaykh: Allahu Akbar. It spread among them. They print papers, ordinary, like this competition, two, three, five papers, and sell them for ten qirsh, fifteen, twenty. Then you submit your answers. Later they look at the correct answers, how many, for example, let us assume one hundred percent. They choose ten according to the prizes they have, and they give to the ten, and the rest lose. Yes, this is unfortunately widespread.
The Shaykh : Shaykh: Gambling, my sir. The causes are many, and death is one.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.