Are raffle drawings or lotteries considered gambling in Islam?

Question

Let's say you pay a small fee, e.g. £5, to enter a competition where you have to answer a maths question. If you answer correctly, your name is put in to a hat and randomly someone is picked to win a prize, e.g. a car. To excess money is given to a charity (e.g., feeding the homeless), if it exceeds the cost of the car. Is this haram or not?

Answer 1

Yes, because gambling is defined as any game of chance where you pay an amount and have a random chance of getting more or less back.

This can be derived from this ayah:

You are forbidden carrion and blood, the flesh of swine and of that animal which has been slaughtered in any other name than that of Allah, and of the strangled animal, and of that beaten to death or killed by a fall or gored to death or mangled by a beast of prey -save of that you duly slaughtered while it was still alive -and of that which is slaughtered at (un-godly) shrines. It is also unlawful for you to try to find your fortune by means of divining devices, for all these things are sinful acts, Today the disbelievers have despaired of (vanquishing) your religion; therefore do not fear them but fear Me. Today I have perfected your religion for you and completed My blessing on you and approved Islam as the way of life for you, (Therefore observe the limits prescribed by the Law); if, however, one, dying of hunger, eats of any of these forbidden things, provided that he is not inclined towards sin, he will find Allah Forgiving and Compassionate. (5:3)

And this is a tafsir:

...[This] includes all kinds of gambling in which the distribution of things etc., is based on mere chance and not on merit, right, service or other rational considerations. For instance, all the schemes of lottery which entitle a certain holder of a ticket to a prize merely on chance, and at the expense of a large number of other holders of such tickets, or the award of prizes for cross-word puzzles in which a certain answer out of a large number of correct ones corresponds, by mere chance, to the answer that has been ear-marked as correct for the purpose - all these things are unlawful. (Tafsir Maududi)

So, basically raffles and lotteries are by definition gambling as you win money on a basis of random chance at the expense of other's and your money.

Answer 2

In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful

All praise is due to God (ﷻ), the Lord of the Worlds. The Beneficent, the Merciful. Master of the Day of Judgement, and God’s Peace and Blessings be upon Muhammad (ﷺ), his family, his noble Companions, and all those who follow them.

---

1) Your question: Are raffle drawings or lotteries considered gambling in haram in Islam?

Answer: Yes, the only thing that is prohibited in Islam is gambling, gambling is totally prohibited and a sin in Islam and it falls under the category of gambling, and this the devils plays with your mind telling you that you want to play these kind of games. Because, God 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 Satan’s handiwork. So avoid (strictly all) that (abomination) in order that you may be successful.

Satan wants only to excite enmity and hatred between you with intoxicants (alcoholic drinks) and gambling, and hinder you from the remembrance of God and from As Salaah (the prayer). So, will you not then abstain?” [al-Maa’idah 5:90-91]

You see? Gambling it is an evil way that leads to many kind of evils such as fighting another winner out of jealousy and there are also movies set in 1900 in America about cowboys that gambles and when another cowboy won, he starts to shoot at another one and then they have become enemies of one another, am I right? That’s one of the main reason for the prohibition to gambling. For many reasons of prohibition to gambling, check here “islamqa.info” But, you can go win.

If you want money, you go and find a halal job and go ahead and work for it, like for example there’s a story which my Muslim father taught me:

“One day, prophet Muhammad(pbuh) caught an old man staying on Mosque, and then the Prophet asked him, “what are you doing?” and the old man replayed, “I’m praying for God to send me some money” and then the next day the same it happened but only this time the Prophet taught him to go and work for it and finally he made some money.”

So you see? Gambling leads to laziness, don’t be like the old man from the Mosque. I suggest you to recite the following informations that I’m about to grant you:

1   Read Durood Shareef 51 times, then;
2   “YA WAHHABU” for 1100 times.
3   In the end, read once again read Durood Shareef 51 times.

Do this above procedure for 41 days continuously you will get quick money within few days Insha ALLAH. Durood Shareef can be Durood-e-Ibraheemi or just SallALLAHU Alaihi Wasallam. This will show some good work and not by gambling, gambling it is like cheating if I’m not mistaken.

In Surah Baqarah we read, “The likeness of those who spend their wealth in the way of God is as the likeness of a grain that grows (into) seven ears, in every ear a hundred grains, and God multiplies for whom he will. And God is all-sufficient for his creatures’ needs, all-knower” (2:261).

So say you give one dollar to a person in need. According to this ayat, God will return that to you sevenfold, turning your one dollar into seven dollars. Donating to charity is a way for Muslims to purify their wealth; by giving a small part of you earnings away you remove the possibility of having any doubtful wealth such as interest.

And by doing as I recommended you to do, you won’t need to gamble, and if you earn a lot of money by reciting these informations, you can give charity, you can buy your own car, you do anything you please with your money.

In another hadith from Bukhari, it states that our Prophet (saw) said:

”If any Muslim plants any plant and a human being or an animal eats of it, he will be rewarded as if he had given that much in charity.”

And plus check in youtube.com in here will show you the ways of how to become rich without gambling.

And also recite this Supplication:

”O Allah! I am praying to You for guidance, piety, chastity and wealth”

What is the meaning of gambling?

Gambling means that you bet over or on money and sometimes you may lose your money or win but still it’s haram to raffle or to play lottery, it is not good better stay away from these things and do something better, like do as I told you and work for earning money and after you earned them, then you can do give charity or to buy your own car but not like this.

CONCLUSION: You can participate in a competition but this competition must not involve gambling, other than gambling is halal.

I hope I answered you good.

---

Sources:

1. islamqa.info
2. yaallah.in
3. Prize Draws if the Tickets are Free
4. zakat.org