played by children with nuts.”

Those who did not prohibit chess, including some followers of al-Shāfiʿī and others, believed that the term “maysir” encompasses only gambling, which is forbidden because it involves consuming wealth unjustly. The same applies to racing and archery contests when each competitor puts up a stake and no third contestant participates without staking anything: they prohibited this because it is gambling. The Sunan collections report that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Whoever enters a horse between two other horses while assured that it will not win is engaging in gambling; whoever enters a horse between two other horses without being assured that it will not win is not engaging in gambling.”

“The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, prohibited sales involving uncertainty,” because they are a form of gambling. An example is buying a runaway slave or a stray camel: if the buyer finds him or it, he has won at the seller’s expense; if he does not, the seller has won at his expense.

Since they believed that these contests were prohibited only because they involved consuming wealth unjustly, they did not prohibit them when no stakes were involved. Some early followers of al-Shāfiʿī consistently applied this reasoning to backgammon, prohibiting it only when stakes were involved. However, al-Shāfiʿī’s explicit statement and the apparent position of his school prohibit backgammon outright, even without stakes. Hence his statement: “I disapprove of it because of the report.” He thus made clear that his basis for this position was the report, not analogical reasoning as he understood it.

This is one of the arguments the majority advanced against him: if backgammon is forbidden even without stakes, then chess, if not equivalent to it, is certainly no less objectionable. Anyone familiar with the reality of playing chess knows this. Whatever backgammon involves of turning people away from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer, and of stirring up enmity and hatred, is undoubtedly present to an even greater degree in chess. It affects souls as the intoxicating force of wine does. It thus distracts their minds