Assalaamu alaykum. In a competition in our office, we recently won a prize. Now, since the organizer of the event was part of our team, we had a slight unfair advantage because we had access to what other people were presenting. Although we did not copy their idea, access to the material of others gave us a sense of what was lacking in our presentation, due to which we added more content to it. Also, being part of the organizing committee resulted in us being more aware of the judging criteria. So, while all teams knew the criteria, we were able to appreciate it better and fine tuned our presentation for the same. So in summary, while our ideas were original and the work that we did was also our own, our final presentation was influenced by us being part of the organizing committee. We won the second prize, and I was wondering whether it is permissible for me to keep the prize or not.

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. 

This matter is to be decided by the entity organizing the competition and offering the prizes. If it does not mind that your team had access to the entries of the other competitors and only cares for the content of your entry and whether it entitles you to win or not, then there is no harm in keeping the prize.

On the other hand, if that entity decides that what took place is a breach of neutrality among the competitors and a violation of the competition's terms, then it is impermissible for you to keep the prize and you should give it back to that entity.

For more benefit, please refer to fatwa 3381.

Allaah knows best.