Gambling, everyone knows, is merely chancing one’s luck. The Quran has called it “from among the filthy works of Satan”. Obviously, this expression has been employed because gambling gives rise to moral misconduct in a person which gradually encompasses his personality. The reason is that if an economic activity is based on rights and services and rational decisions, it develops a high moral character, and if an economic activity is based on mere chance, fortune and fortuity, it produces an attitude which is based on avoidance of hard work and service. This gives rise to such mean qualities as cowardice and faint-heartedness which subsequently eliminate the innate qualities of honour, integrity, sincerity and self-respect. As a result, a person becomes unmindful to the remembrance of the Almighty and to the prayer, and instead of having love and affection for his fellow beings, he has nothing but enmity and hatred for them. The Quran says:

يَاأَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِنَّمَا الْخَمْرُ وَالْمَيْسِرُ وَالْأَنصَابُ وَالْأَزْلَامُ رِجْسٌ مِنْ عَمَلِ الشَّيْطَانِ فَاجْتَنِبُوهُ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ إِنَّمَا يُرِيدُ الشَّيْطَانُ أَنْ يُوقِعَ بَيْنَكُمْ الْعَدَاوَةَ وَالْبَغْضَاءَ فِي الْخَمْرِ وَالْمَيْسِرِ وَيَصُدَّكُمْ عَنْ ذِكْرِ اللَّهِ وَعَنْ الصَّلَاةِ فَهَلْ أَنْتُمْ مُنتَهُونَ (5 :90-91)

Believers! This liquor and gambling and idols and these divining arrows are abominations devised by Satan. So avoid them that you may succeed. Satan seeks to stir up enmity and malice among you by means of liquor and gambling and to keep you from the remembrance of Allah and from the prayer. So will you not then abstain from them? (5:90-91)

An important point to note is that gambling in pre-Islamic times was also means through which the rich showed their generosity and helped the poor and needy. In winters, when cold winds blew in and caused conditions akin to drought, the courageous would gather at various places, drink liquor and in their state of inebriation would slaughter any camels they could get hold of. They would pay the owner of the camels whatever price he demanded. They would then gamble on the meat of the slaughtered camels. Whatever parts of meat a person won in this gambling, he would generously distribute them among the poor who would gather around them on such occasions. In pre-Islamic Arabia, this was a matter of great honour and people who took part in this activity were considered very philanthropic and generous. The poets would narrate the accounts of their benevolence in their odes. On the other hand, people who stayed away from this activity would be called barm (stingy).

It was this very utility of liquor and gambling which prompted people to inquire when they were regarded as prohibited items. The Quran asserted in its reply that in spite of possessing this benefit, they were instrumental in producing moral misconduct in an individual, which in no case can be allowed:

يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنْ الْخَمْرِ وَالْمَيْسِرِ قُلْ فِيهِمَا إِثْمٌ كَبِيرٌ وَمَنَافِعُ لِلنَّاسِ وَإِثْمُهُمَا أَكْبَرُ مِنْ نَفْعِهِمَا (219:2)

They ask you about liquor and gambling. Tell them: “There is great sin in them and some profits as well for people; But their sin is greater than their profit.” (2:219)

(Javed Ahmed Ghamidi)

(Translated by Dr. Shehzad Saleem)