Fatwa ID: 02048

Answered by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah

Question:

Zeekrewards is a advertising company created by zeekler.com for its promotion zeekler.com is penny auction company and zeekler work is they sale items on the basis of bidding, if we want to bid than we have to purchase bids to participate in bidding, 1 bid is 0.65 cents, then we bid on item and 20 seconds timer starts and after that if no one bid for 20 seconds than we get that item.
For example, let’s say that an auction site has an iPhone listed for an online auction. After all the bidders have placed their bids and the countdown timer has been reset numerous times, the winner is finally announced and won the item for just $11. This may sound too good to be true, but let’s look at how much money the auction site actually makes from this single sale. Since the winning price is $11, this means that 1,100 bids were placed. Since each bid cost the bidders $1, the website just made $1,100 just from bids plus another $11 for the cost of the item. Just for sake of example, let’s say this iPhone cost the website $300. This means that the auction site just made $811 from this single live auction.
Now Coming on zeekrewards. In Zeekrewards our work is ad 1 post daily on classified sites or on facebook , ad is about zeekler.com , previous i say zeekrewards is created for promotion of zeekler.com , we earn at zeekrewards on the base of our points the more points we have more we earn we post 1 ad

daily and we get daily 1 point 2 points 2.5 points and there is also option of investment means we have to purchase vip bids, eg I purchased 200points of 200$ and now i will be paid 2% or 3% or 4% or 1.5% or 1.3% of 200points daily its not fix sometime 2% sometime 3% or sometime 1.5% or sometime 1.3% till 90 days after 90 days our vip points expired. Investment is not necessary we get daily 2 points  from posting ad and these points also expires after 90 days.

Answer:

There are two words which can be found in the books of hadith which sometimes people get confused with when it comes to auctions. One word is called Najsh, which is impermissible and the second is Bayy My- Yazeed or Muzayadah, which is permissible.

It is mentioned in a hadith that the Prophet of Allah forbade Najsh. (Sahih Bukhari p.287 v.1 & Sahih Muslim).

Najsh is where the seller asks another man to attend the auction and make bids without wanting to buy, in order to raise the price for the genuine buyer. (Mazahirul Haqq p.497 v.3)

However, where that is not the case, then to sell to the highest bidder will be permissible.

Saaiduna Jabir narrates, a man had decided that a slave of his would be manumitted after his death, but later on he was in need of money, so the Prophet of Allah took the slave and said, “Who will buy this slave from me?” Nu’aym ibn ‘Abd-Allaah bought him, and the Prophet of Allah handed the slave over to him. (Sahih Bukhari p.287 v.1 & Sahih Muslim)

Regarding the second part of your question, in terms of investing points for advertising, this to me seems impermissible, as it contradicts one of the main conditions of investment in Islam.

One of the main conditions of investing is that the distribution of profit must be pre-determined. However, in your question, it seems as though this is not the case from zeekrewards.

Furthermore, it is mentioned in a hadith narrated by Numan bin Bashir that the Prophet of Allah said: "What is lawful is clear and what is unlawful is clear, but between them are certain doubtful things which many people do not recognize. He who guards against doubtful things, keeps his religion and honour blameless. But he who falls into doubtful things, falls into what is unlawful, just as a shepherd who pastures his animals around a preserve will soon pasture them into it". (Sahih Bukhari p.275 v.1 & Sahih Muslim)

Only Allah Knows Best

Mohammed Tosir Miah

Darul Ifta Birmingham.