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I want to ask about an app called White Sands, which works as follows:
1. You subscribe to the app by paying money, which is an annual subscription.
2. The app sends you daily tasks, such as adding likes to video clips on YouTube, or on Facebook pages. These clips and pages do not contain anything that is contrary to Islamic teachings, as most of them are about cooking, gardening and the like.
3. In return for every task you do, you receive financial compensation. My question is: is this money that I receive from the app halal or haram?
Praise be to Allah.
It is not permissible to subscribe to the White Sands app , because it is based on gambling, because of the stipulation to pay money in advance, whether monthly or annually.
What gambling means is certain loss and possible gain, because the subscriber will lose three hundred pounds or six thousand, and he does not know whether he will get the same amount back, or less or more.
Allah, may He be exalted, says (interpretation of the meaning):
{O you who have believed, indeed, intoxicants, gambling, [sacrificing on] stone altars [to other than Allah], and divining arrows are but defilement from the work of Satan, so avoid it that you may be successful. Satan only wants to cause between you animosity and hatred through intoxicants and gambling and to avert you from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer. So will you not desist?.} [al-Maidah 5:90-91]
Al-Bujayrami said: “Gambling is that in which you are uncertain whether you will gain or lose by doing it.” (Hashiyat al-Bujayrami ‘ala Sharh al-Manhaj, 4/376)
Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymin (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
“In the case of gambling – which is any transaction which will lead to either gain or loss – the one who engages in that transaction does not know whether he will be a winner or a loser, any such transaction is haram. In fact, it is a major sin, and it is quite obvious how abhorrent it is, as Allah, may He be exalted, mentioned it alongside worship of idols, intoxicants and divining arrows.” (Fatawa Islamiyyah, 4/441)
It is not permissible for an individual to make more than one account for the purpose of surfing the net and advertising, because of what that involves of deceit and cheating.
And Allah knows best.