but error?’”
Abū Hanīfah said: “I disapprove of playing chess and backgammon.” Thus, all four imams prohibit every form of idle amusement.
The majority nevertheless differed over two issues.
The first: Should the greeting of peace be offered to someone playing chess? The explicit position of Abū Hanīfah, Ahmad, al-Mu‘āfā ibn ‘Imrān and others is that he should not be greeted. The position of Mālik, Abū Yūsuf and Muhammad is that he should be greeted. Nevertheless, Mālik’s position is that chess is worse than backgammon, whereas Ahmad’s position is that backgammon is worse than chess, as al-Shāfi‘ī also stated.
The correct assessment is that, when both involve stakes or both are played without stakes, chess is worse than backgammon. It contains the harms of backgammon and more, such as turning the heart away from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer, among other things. Hence the saying that chess accords with the doctrine of free will, while backgammon accords with the doctrine of determinism. Chess occupies the heart more intensely with thought. But when backgammon involves stakes, backgammon is worse. This is why Ahmad, al-Shāfi‘ī and others regarded backgammon as worse: they had in mind that stakes were involved in backgammon but not in chess.
This also makes clear the source of the confusion surrounding this subject. Allah Most High prohibited maysir (gambling) in His Book, and Muslims unanimously agree that maysir is forbidden. They also agree that competitive games involving wagers fall within maysir, whether played with chess, backgammon, nuts, gaming pieces or eggs. Several of the Successors, including ‘Atā’, Tāwūs, Mujāhid and Ibrāhīm al-Nakha‘ī, said: “Anything involving wagering falls within maysir—even games