He pays to sign up for a website then he answers questions to win a prize
Question What is the ruling on the following quiz? A quiz on the Internet in which you buy a card of $25 and join the quiz, answer the questions and get the prize without drawing names or lots. The quiz consists of 30 questions; every ten questions form a stage. If you, for example, answer…
Question
A quiz on the Internet in which you buy a card of $25 and join the quiz, answer the questions and get the prize without drawing names or lots. The quiz consists of 30 questions; every ten questions form a stage. If you, for example, answer 15 questions correctly, but couldn’t answer the sixteenth question correctly, then you win the prize of passing the first stage only. And so on.
Praise be to Allah.
This competition is a kind
of gambling, and gambling is definitively forbidden by Allaah as He says
(interpretation of the meaning):
“O you who believe!
Intoxicants (all kinds of alcoholic drinks), and gambling, and Al‑Ansaab
(stone altars for sacrifices to idols etc), and Al‑Azlaam (arrows for
seeking luck or decision) are an abomination of Shaytaan’s (Satan’s)
handiwork. So avoid (strictly all) that (abomination) in order that you may
be successful.
91. Shaytaan (Satan)
wants only to excite enmity and hatred between you with intoxicants
(alcoholic drinks) and gambling, and hinder you from the remembrance of
Allaah and from As‑Salaah (the prayer). So, will you not then abstain?”
[al-Maa’idah 5:90-91]
Gambling – as al-Maawardi
said – is that in which the participant will be either a winner if he takes,
and a loser if he gives. End quote from al-Haadi al-Kabeer (15/192).
This is the case in this
transaction, because the participant will either lose the price of his
subscription, or he will gain more if he answers the questions.
Another reason why it is
haraam is that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)
said: “There should be no prizes except for archery, camel racing or horse
racing.” Narrated by al-Tirmidhi (1700) and al-Nasaa’i (3585)
The Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) mentioned these three because they are
skills used in jihad for the sake of Allaah.
Some scholars added to
these three everything that helps with jihad and spreading Islam, such as
competitions in reciting Qur’aan or in knowledge of hadeeth and fiqh, so it
is permissible to award prizes for these.
It is not permissible to
enter competitions in which entrants pay money (the cost of subscribing or
participating) then if one wins he takes the prize, except those which were
mentioned by the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)
only.
And Allaah knows best.
