Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.  (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

I just need to ask one question that if u work at a place where there are lottery machines in which if a person wins the money from the machine for example $100 and person get the money. And that person decided to give some money money to his friend. SO IS THAT MONEY OK OR NOT if he wins from the machine and gave to someone else.

THANKS 

(There may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)

Answer:

Lottery

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no person, no grave, no prophet, no imam, no dai, nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 5 Surah Maidah verses 90-91:

O you who have believed! ‘Khamr’ (all types of intoxicants), games of chance (or gambling), idols, and divining arrows are all abominable works of Shaitaan; therefore, stay (far) away from these so that you may attain success. Indeed, Shaitaan seeks to sow enmity and hatred among you by means of ‘khamr’ (intoxicants) and gambling, and to prevent you from the Remembrance of Allah and from Salaah. Will you not, then, abstain from these things?

The scholars of Islam are unanimous in their opinion that lottery is a game of chance and thus a form of gambling; and thus absolutely prohibited in Islam.

Firstly, the person who plays such a forbidden game of chance or the ‘lottery’, regardless of whether he wins or looses, has transgressed the limits of Allah and His Messenger (saws) and is guilty of the sin of indulging in something which has clearly been declared as forbidden in Islam.

Secondly, any money or material the person wins in the lottery will be considered an absolutely haraam source of earnings for him.

If the person gives the money he earned in a haraam manner to someone else, there is no sin on the one who receives the haraam money; regardless of whether that person is his wife, children, parents, friends, etc. The responsibility and burden of the sin lies on the shoulders of the person who committed the forbidden act of indulging in something which has clearly been declared as haraam in Islam.

The same principle applies to all haraam earnings, whether it was generated by taking bribes, or cheating someone, or stealing, or by winning the lottery, etc. If the person who earns the haraam feeds his wife and children with his haraam earnings, there is absolutely no sin on the wife and children; or if the person who earns the haraam returns the loan he has taken from a friend or gifts something to a friend from his haraam earnings, there will be absolutely no sin on the friend. The burden of the sin will be borne by the person who, of his own free will, indulges in the haraam.

But if the wife or friend, etc. who is the beneficiary of the haraam money encouraged the person to indulge in the haraam for their benefit, they will definitely share a burden of that sin; but in general, the burden of the sin will be borne by the person who indulges in the haraam.

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me alone. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

Your brother and well wisher in Islam,

Burhan