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Fatwa CenterBank certificates used for drawings
Question
Here in Qatar Mashriq Bank (the headquarter is in U.A.E) issues certificates each worth 1000 Qatari Riyals and at the time of purchasing of these certificates they charge 25 QR as their application processing charge irrespective of the number of the certificates purchased (i.e. for one or one thousand certificates the cost is 25 QR only). Monthly there are many drawings held on these certificates; the main one is on 15th of every month of one million QR and some times 3.5 million QR, and at beginning of the month of one hundred thousand Riyals, and sometimes fifty thousand riyals daily. The bank is not providing any interest to the holder of these certificates (only the above mentioned draws will be held on these certificates) and any time you want to return or sell the certificate to the bank the complete amount will be returned. My questions are if a person wins any of the above mentioned draws is the money Haram or Halal? Kindly explain in both cases (i.e. why Halal and why Haram). I am desperately awaiting for your kind and prompt reply because a lot of people have asked me about the a/m certificates.
Answer
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.
Dealing with usury-taking banks is forbidden since to do so means approving or accepting their transactions. The mentioned transaction is not correct for the following reasons:
a) The amount that is paid against certificates is nothing but a loan given to the bank. Then getting benefits against the loan is considered Riba in Islamic Shariah.
b) The draw on these certificates is actually a draw on the usury of the amounts that are collected from people and used in Riba transactions.
c) It is also a kind of gambling since some of the participants win and some of them lose based only on chance.
Allah knows best.
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