6829 – 0028
Question:
السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته.
Hope mufti saheb is well.
I would like to know if the competition I am hosting falls under the category of gambling. I intend on hosting a braai challenge at my school. Where students will be randomly grouped together and put to the test. We will be testing fire making skills. Braaing skills. Team work. Presentation of the food. And culinary skills.
Each group gets a bag of charcoal and blitz as well as enough rolls and wors for each person on the team with drinks and 1 extra wors roll for the judges.
The cost per person to enter the competition is R50. This allows the organizers to have funds to provide blitz charcoal wors and rolls to the learners. Prizes will be awarded after the competition based on the above criteria. The organizers of the competition will use the funds of the school to get the prizes for winners.
Would this be regarded as gambling, as everyone taking part is putting money forward with the uncertainty of winning something at the end?
Answer:
As salām ʿalaikum wa raḥmatullāhī wa barakātuhū
In the Name of Allāh, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
In the enquired scenario since the R50 is being used to cover the actual costs of the charcoal, blitz, wors and rolls and the prizes are being sponsored separately by the school, it would not be considered as gambling.
And Allāh Taʿālā knows best.
بدائع الصنائع في ترتيب الشرائع — علاء الدين، أبو بكر بن مسعود بن أحمد الكاساني الحنفي (ت ٥٨٧هـ) 206/6
وكذلك ما يفعله السلاطين وهو أن يقول السلطان لرجلين: من سبق منكما فله كذا فهو جائز لما بينا أن ذلك من باب التحريض على استعداد أسباب الجهاد خصوصا من السلطان
جواھر الفقہ — مفتی محمد شفیع 570-571/4 (ت ١٣٩٦ھ)