Assalaamu alaikum, What is the ruling on muslims holding sponsored activites such as sponsored walking, sponsored silence and so on for charity? I'm asking because I was of the opinion that this falls under the category of imitating the kuffar, as this idea originated purely from them and they do outrageous thing all the under the name of charity au'dhabillah. Also the Prophet(saw) and sahabah had their ways of raising charity, and its all been layed out in the sunnah. Jazakum Allah khairan

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger.

It is permissible to organize sponsored walking or silence processions for lawful purposes if these activities are done within the Sharee‘ah limits, such as avoiding free intermixing between the sexes, entailing no harm on people and possessions, or the like. For further information see Fataawa 84082 and 97197 which prove the permissibility of holding demonstrations and their required limits.

However, there is no certain ways for collecting donations, but any means that achieves this is required by the Sharee‘ah as long as it is restrained with the limits we referred to in these two Fataawa.

Moreover, staging such processions is not a prohibited imitation of non-Muslims, because it is prohibited for Muslims to imitate non-Muslims in matters that are peculiar to them or their religious rituals. For further information, see Fataawa 119486 and 90174.

Allaah Knows best.