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What is the ruling of Islamic Sharia on money and the site that operates on a matrix system, where an individual subscribes for a fee and invites others to register through his special link, and he receives a percentage of their subscriptions and the subscriptions of those who register through them up to 15 levels, with the condition of inviting at least 3 people?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

This transaction is impermissible because it involves gharar (excessive uncertainty) and gambling. The Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Ifta has issued a fatwa prohibiting it because the purpose of the transaction is commissions, not the product, and the product is merely a facade to obtain profits. The reasons for the prohibition are:

Firstly: The transaction involves usury of excess (riba al-fadl) and usury of delay (riba al-nasi'ah), as the product is not the participant's intention; it is merely a facade for exchange.

Secondly: It falls under the category of gharar, which is forbidden by Sharia, because the participant does not know whether they will succeed in recruiting the required number of participants or not. Most members at the base of the pyramid scheme are losers, except for the very few at its top.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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