Gamblers will always gamble.I still see a stream of muslims going in
and out shamelessly buying numbers at 4-digits shops even in the month
of Ramadhan and yet they fast! Recently,it was reported in the local
papers that the police are going all out to catch illegal betting
agents in the light of football World Cup is just around the corner. No
matter what actions taken by police,illegal gambling will continue...
Some 25 years ago when I was the head of a government department at
district level,every time after I paid my staff salary, I noticed a
group of them congregate at the workshop playing cards.When I
checked,they were actually gambling their salaries away.I got hold of
the leader and advised him not to gamble.They followed my advice-they
don't gamble in the office compound but they did outside. That is
beyond my jurisdiction. That is why I started my first sentence above
that gamblers will always gamble. Prevention is better than cure.
To my fellow muslims/muslimahs, please donot gamble even for fun or
small bets during the coming World Cup.Gambling is gambling.It is
strictly forbidden and will destroy your life and the lives of the ones
you love.
Below is what our famous ulama Yusuf Al-Qaradawi has written:
Al-Maidah (The Table)
Chapter 5: Verses 90-91
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Gambling :
"O
you who believe, truly intoxicants and gambling and divination by
arrows are an abomination of Satan's doing; avoid them in order that
you may be successful. Assuredly Satan desires to sow enmity and hatred
among you by means of intoxicants and gambling, and to hinder you from
the remembrance of Allah and from prayer. Will you not then desist?”
While
permitting a variety of games and sports, Islam prohibits any game
which involves betting, that is, which has an element of gambling in
it. It is not lawful for the Muslim to seek relaxation and recreation
in gambling, nor is it lawful for him to acquire money through it.
There are sound and noble objectives behind this strict prohibition of gambling:
1. The Islamic teachings urge the Muslim to follow Allah's directives for earning a living,
to use natural laws and direct means for the attainment of his
objectives, and to employ such causes to produce the desired effects.
Gambling, which includes raffling or the lottery, on the other hand,
makes a person dependent on chance, 'luck' and empty wishes, taking him
away from honest labour, serious work and productive effort. The person
who depends on gambling loses respect for the laws of causation which
Allah has established and commanded people to use.
2. In Islam, an individual's property is sacred;
it may not be taken from him except through lawful exchange or unless
he gives it freely as a gift or in charity. Accordingly, taking it from
him by gambling is unlawful.
3. It is therefore not surprising that gamblers develop hatred and enmity towards one another,
although they may claim that losing does not trouble them. There is
always a winner and a loser. The loser may seem composed but behind his
composure is frustration, anger, and regret: frustration due to
disappointment, anger at the loss of money, and regret for not having
played a winning game.
4. Gambling has its own compulsion.
The loser plays again in hope of winning the next game in order to
regain his earlier losses, while the winner plays again to enjoy the
pleasure of winning, impelled by greed for more. Naturally, luck
changes hands, the loser becomes the winner and the winner the loser,
and the joy of winning changes into the bitterness of loss. Thus the
gamblers may persist at playing the game, unable to bring themselves to
leave it; this is the secret of the addiction to gambling.
5. Because of this addiction, gambling is a danger to the society as well as to the individual.
This habit consumes gamblers' time and energy, making them
non-productive idlers and parasites on society, who take but do not
give, who consume but do not produce. Moreover, due to his absorption
with gambling, the gambler neglects his obligations towards his Creator
and his duties towards his community. It often happens that a gambling
addict sells his honour, religion, and country for the sake of the
gaming table, since his devotion to this table dulls his sense of
values and kills all other devotions.
How correct the Quran is in mentioning drinking and gambling together
in its verses, since their harmful effects on the individual, the
family, and society are very similar. What is more like alcoholism than
addiction to gambling? This is why one usually is not found without the
other. Again, how correct the Quran is when it teaches us that both of
these, drinking and gambling, are inspired by Satan, that they are akin
to idolatry and divining by arrows, and that they are filthy and abominable habits which must be shunned.
Source:
"The Lawful and Prohibited in Islam" - Yusuf Al-Qaradawi
[the qoute is taken from Friday Nasiha]
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