so when the Prophet ﷺ threw him to the ground, Rukānah knew that he was being supported by a power from Allah. That is why he exclaimed, “By Allah, no one has ever put my side on the earth!”—for he had never been defeated. The Prophet ﷺ intended, through this bout, to display the signs of his prophethood and the strength and ability with which Allah had aided him (1). The terms of the wager were therefore like the terms in the story of the Ṣiddīq: there the proof lay in knowledge, here it lay in strength and power. Yet the religion is upheld by both: knowledge and power. Wagering on them is analogous to wagering on archery and horsemanship because both help to manifest and support the religion, so the wager was on truth, and taking money for it is taking it lawfully (3). Nevertheless, because the Prophet’s purpose was only to exalt and make the truth evident, he returned the stake and accepted nothing; the man then embraced Islam.

This wager of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and of his Ṣiddīq is a form of jihad by which Allah causes His religion to appear and grants it honor. It therefore falls under the meaning of the three exceptions mentioned in the hadith of Abū Hurayrah; the difference is that those three activities are, in their very nature, prepared for jihad, whereas wrestling is not prepared for it in itself. It resembles jihad only when it serves to champion and elevate the truth, as in the Prophet’s wrestling with Rukānah.

Likewise, when those three exempted activities are pursued for self-glorification, haughtiness on earth, or oppression of people, they are blameworthy—and so too are wrestling and footracing