the wisdom of the Sharia and its discerning appraisal of benefits and harms and their respective degrees.

This is illustrated by the fact that Allah, exalted is He, has forbidden khamr (intoxicants) in both small and large quantities—whether it actually intoxicates or not—because a small amount invites to a large amount, and the large amount clouds the intellect (1), leads to the evils into which Satan wishes to cast people, and blocks the avenues of rectification (2) that Allah and His Messenger love. The prohibition of the large amount therefore falls under banning the direct causes of corruption, while the prohibition of the small amount comes under cutting off the means.

If you examine the state of these competitive games (3), you will find them in this respect like intoxicants: a little of them calls to much, and the excessive involvement in them (4) turns people away from what Allah and His Messenger love and drives them toward what Allah and His Messenger detest. Even if no explicit text had forbidden them, the fundamentals and maxims of the Sharia, the wisdoms and benefits it embodies, and the principle that there is no distinction between things that are essentially alike (5) would all necessitate prohibiting and condemning them—so how much more so when (6) the scriptural texts themselves point to their prohibition! Thus, both revelation and analogy agree that they are forbidden.

Ali ibn Abi Talib—the Commander of the Believers, may Allah be pleased with him—