Is it permissible to purchase and use the student discount card for university students, which is sold for five dinars and offers discounts in various places, knowing that this amount may be to cover the advertising expenses of the distributing company?

Discount cards are divided into two categories: those that require payment and those that are free. Cards that require payment are forbidden due to the presence of gharar (definition) (uncertainty), maysir (definition) (gambling), misleading people, harming other merchants, and being a cause of disputes and consuming people's wealth unlawfully. The Fiqh Academy, the Permanent Committee [for Scholarly Research and Ifta’], and the two Sheikhs, Ibn Baz and Ibn Uthaymeen, have issued fatwas declaring them forbidden. As for free cards, there is no harm in them, because they fall under contracts of voluntary donations.