Selling mystery boxes

A question about selling mystery boxes, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that if the box itself is the item sold and its contents are a prize, the sale is valid, but if its unseen contents are what is being sold, the sale is void for excessive uncertainty (gharar), so the mystery boxes described may be neither sold nor bought. ¹

The questioner asked about selling 100 random boxes at 20 dinars each without the buyer knowing what is inside, one of which contains a sum of money in addition to items worth 20 dinars. ¹

The Department answered that a sale has pillars and conditions, among them that the item sold be known well enough to remove uncertainty; if it is unknown because it has not been seen, the sale is invalid. It quoted Ibn al-Naqib in Umdat al-Salik (p. 150) that one may not sell an unspecified item or an item absent from view, and Nihayat al-Zayn (p. 226) that a sale is invalid if one party has not seen the item, even if it is present at the place of contract. ¹ It said the case has two forms: if the box is the intended item of sale and the things inside are given to the buyer as a prize, the sale is valid because the item and price are known; but if the things inside the boxes are the intended item of sale, they are unseen and unknown, which is forbidden gharar. ¹ It cited a hadith narrated by Muslim from Abu Hurayra prohibiting the pebble sale and sales involving gharar, and quoted Zakariyya al-Ansari in Asna al-Matalib (2/11) that gharar is what wavers between two opposite outcomes, the more likely being the more feared, or what has a hidden outcome; here the contents of the boxes and their value are unknown, and may be worth more or less than the price. ¹ It concluded that these mystery boxes may be neither sold nor bought, since the conditions of a valid sale are not met and forbidden gharar is present. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 3687, dated 24 February 2022. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.