Question Summary:
Please check out the information provided, and let me know if it could be viewed as ‘gambling’?

Question Detail:

Please check out the information below, and let me know if it could be viewed as ‘gambling’?
How it works simply.
-The site places an item on ‘auction’ at a ridiculously low starting price; normally R1.
- As a registered user, you purchase bids at R5 a bid, and bid for the items before the closing of the auction.
-Each “bid’ you place increases the price by 1 cent….. but remember that you are paying to bid.
-The person whose bid is the last one at the end of the auction, gets to purchase the item, at the auctioned price. In addition you have to pay for shipping (if applicable).
-The site makes its money by selling the bids.
- The element of doubt that I have is that you are paying to bid and if your bid is not the lowest, you lose the value of the bids you have “spent”

Answer :

 In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

 As-salāmu `alaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh.

1. We went through your email correspondence and studied the contents therein. Our understanding of the structure of the online auction in reference is as follows:
1.1)          The auction company places an item on its website for sale.
1.2)          A bidder purchases a coupon for a fee in lieu of the right to bid in the auction.
1.3)          The auction company stipulates a starting price of the item on auction. The price increases according to the number of bids.
1.4)          The company fixes a specified amount of time to the auction, after which, the auction terminates.
1.5)          The last person, who bids, gets to purchase the auctioned item.

2.         A bidder pays for different bids to stand a chance of purchasing the auctioned item.
3.         One is paying purely to bid. This is clearly understood from the fact that each bid has a different price which is a sufficient proof that the money is not in lieu of a facility. Rather, it is in lieu of the actual bid itself, which is a once of payment.
4.         In Shariah, a non- tangible right has no monetary value if it is not considered as a commodity in Urf. The right to bid in the auction is a non- tangible right having no monetary value. Therefore, the above auction is impermissible.[1]

And Allah knows best.
 
Maulana Ismail Desai,
Durban, South Africa
Student Darul Iftaa
 
Checked and Approved
Mufti Ebrahim Desai
daruliftaa.net