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What is the ruling on the following transaction: a challenge between two individuals in a live streaming program that relies on collecting "diamonds" (which are purchased with money) from the audience, where the winner is the one who has a larger balance of diamonds at the end of the specified period? And is this considered forbidden gambling and maysir?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

It is not permissible to give a prize or compensation in competitions except for camels, horses, and archery. Competitions for the Qur’an, Hadith, and Fiqh, and everything that aids in spreading the religion, have been appended to these, based on the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) saying: “There is no prize except in archery, or with a hoof (horse), or a paw (camel).” There is no difference whether the prize comes from the contestants or an external party; both are forbidden except for what has been explicitly stated or appended to it from what supports the religion. If it is from the contestants, then it is gambling. Otherwise, it is forbidden because it is prohibited compensation. It is common for these competitions to be in things that are useless or forbidden, and spending money on them is prohibited.

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

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