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Praise be to Allah, I am a religiously committed young man living in a European country. My father does not pray, and he gambles, meaning that he bets on horses. One day he won a prize from betting, and he told me that he was going to buy me a car and a house with this money. But I told him that all that I want is for him to be safe. Now I do not know what to do; should I accept it from him or not?
Praise be to Allah.
Firstly:
We ask Allah, may He be exalted, to make you steadfast in adhering to righteousness, and to guide your father, and to grant you the joy of seeing him mend his ways, and to enable you to honour and obey him.
Undoubtedly your father is in grave danger and is being tested with a great trial. The right that the one who is tested has over us is that we should show kindness to him and be compassionate regarding his situation and pity him, and we should be gentle in calling him, in order to bring him out of the situation he is in. The first thing you should do in calling and guiding him is pay attention to the matter of prayer, even if you do that gradually and gently. Perhaps Allah will guide him and open his heart to establishing prayer and obeying the Lord of the Worlds.
Secondly:
Undoubtedly the most prudent and appropriate thing for you to do is refuse to accept this money, because the money itself that you would be accepting was acquired in an unlawful manner. As there is a strong difference of opinion among the scholars as to whether it is permissible to accept such a gift, then being cautious and not accepting such a gift is more appropriate, and that will be of greater help to you in explaining to your father the ruling on it and the prohibition on acquiring it. Perhaps Allah will guide him because of what he sees of his son’s restraint and refusal to benefit from it.
However, if you need that money and it is too difficult for you to do without it, or if not accepting it would result in estrangement between you and your father, or it would result in a bad relationship between you, then we hope that there will be no blame on you for accepting it from him, even if he did acquire it in an unlawful manner, because in the case of wealth that is haram because of the manner in which it was acquired – such as wealth acquired by dealing in riba, gambling or accepting bribes – it is permissible for someone other than the one who acquired it, if he obtains it in a permissible manner, such as a gift or what is spent on his maintenance. This has been stated by more than one of the scholars, and we have given answers on that basis on this website.
For more information, please see the answers to questions no. 171922 , 126486 , 215 .
And Allah knows best.