and said:

“What are these statues to which you are so devoted?”

He likened them to those devoted to idols, just as the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, is reported in al-Musnad to have said:

“The wine drinker is like an idol worshipper.”

Wine and gambling are paired together in the Book of Allah Most High. The prohibition of chess is likewise well known from Ibn ‘Umar and other Companions. What is transmitted from Abū Hanīfah and his followers, and from Ahmad and his followers, is that it is “forbidden.”

As for al-Shāfi‘ī, he said: “I disapprove of playing it because of the report. Playing chess and playing with pigeons without gambling, although we disapprove of them, are less serious than backgammon.” Other statements transmitted from him convey the same meaning: that he disapproved of chess and regarded it as less serious than backgammon. There is no doubt that his disapproval denotes prohibition, for he said, “because of the report.” The wording of the report that he himself transmitted from Mālik is:

“Whoever plays backgammon has disobeyed Allah and His Messenger.”

Thus, he disapproved of chess … (1) even though it is less serious than backgammon.

It has also been transmitted from him that he withheld judgment on its prohibition and said: “It is not clear to me that it is forbidden.” Yet we have not learned of anyone transmitting a statement from him that entails denying its prohibition. Moreover, the imams whose followers did not disagree over its prohibition most often expressed their ruling as “disapproval.”

Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr said: “Mālik and his followers unanimously agreed that neither backgammon nor chess may be played. They also said that the testimony of someone who habitually and persistently plays chess is inadmissible.”

Yahyā said: “I heard Mālik say, ‘There is no good in chess or other such things.’ I also heard him express disapproval of playing it and engaging in other vain pursuits, reciting this verse: ‘What, then, is there beyond the truth