School Raffle - can Muslims participate?

daymobrew

I am creating a short survey for the parent body of a multi denominational primary school (yes, an Educate Together school). To encourage survey participation the PTA are offering participants a chance to win a small prize (by entering name/email in a field in the survey).

I have been told that Muslims are not allowed to gamble. Would it be considered gambling to enter the raffle?
If not, I would welcome suggestions for the appropriate, respectful, wording to add to the text below.

We would also like as many parents/guardians as possible to complete the survey. To encourage participation, we are having a draw for all those that complete this survey. To enter the draw, please enter your name and email address. The email address will only be used for the draw, it will not be kept for any other purpose.

looksee

I doubt it would be considered gambling to offer a prize for contributing to a survey? I don't know how a Muslim would feel about this, but there are other religious groups that would not gamble either - Methodists for one. And there are individuals who would not gamble on principle. Could you not just say 'If you do not wish to be included in the draw, just leave the email field blank'.

Tom Dunne

I'm not a Muslim, but living in a Muslim country, I believe raffles are fine, where participants do not have to buy a ticket. I believe in this case, it's more correctly a prize draw as participants don't have to buy a ticket.

Random fact: during Ramadan, a Ghaba evening is a popular activity. It's an evening event, typically run by companies for employees and their families, that almost always include a prize draw of lavish prizes. Not that I have ever won anything.

So in my totally unqualified opinion, you should be fine.

Defender OF Faith

What Tom said is correct. In the context and condition of the raffle you described, it's perfectly fine. The definition of gambling, as explained by many Islamic jurists (fuqaha), is to place one’s wealth at stake actually or effectively, in that this wealth may bring more wealth with it or it may be lost completely. Another definition given is:
“Ownership of wealth by risking one’s wealth". In your situation all that's required is the name and address of the participant and no money/wealth is involved hence clearly it does not qualify as gambling & it would be perfectly fine for a Muslim to participate.

The situation where participant need to buy a ticket to enter the raffle and have a chance of winning a prize would be different though.

daymobrew

Thanks for the replies. I changed 'raffle' to 'draw' and the survey is out there.