Playing games with tools of gambling e.g. cards (1)

Following this brief look at one topic in usul (rules of how to derive rulings), I thought it would be interesting to go back to Istidlal (actual derivation of rulings). My aim is to return to another topic in usul after this (perhaps something like mafhum/itlaq – please contact me if you have a preference).

We will now look at Ayatullah Saanei’s view of using instruments of gambling without gambling. Just for information, I am using a different chapter in his “Series (of books) on Contemporary Fiqh” for each of these topics.

His first chapter discusses the impermissibility of gambling in general but due to this being something that is not really of concern, we will move on directly to the second chapter: “Competitions/games and playing with instruments of gambling without recompense or gambling”.

The main verse used is 2:219:

“They ask you about intoxicants and games of chance. Say: In both of them there is a great sin and means of profit/benefit for men, and their sin is greater than their profit.”

There is doubt amongst the scholars about whether this type of game e.g. playing cards/chess for fun, is haram or not:

1. Al-Muqaddas al-Ardabili who says in his Zubdat al-Bayan fi Ahkam al-Qur`an: “Know that the apparent meaning of the verse is the absolute impermissibility of wine and every intoxicant, and similarly for gambling, but this is when taking something as collateral”. [taking something as collateral basically means betting for something]

2. Shaykh Ansari says in al-Makasib al-Muharrama: “Playing with tools of gambling without taking something as collateral…is something on which there is debate.”


Backgammon and chess are excluded from this rule, according to Saanei, as playing with them is considered impermissible.

[Ayatullah Fadlallah considers playing chess as allowable as seen in http://arabic.bayynat.org.lb/mbayynat/books/nadwas/fikr241q5.htm]

Ayatullah Saanei then talks about why it is possible to use tools of gambling as long as you do not gamble. He firstly discusses verses of Qur`an, which he shows are not applicable to this type of game, and then moves onto narrations. In the next blog, we will look at the Qur`anic arguments...