so how much more does this apply to what frequently leads to corruption! This is why being alone with a woman outside the prohibited degrees of marriage is forbidden. As for looking, since there is a need for some of it, permission is granted to the extent required by that need. Need is a basis for permission, just as corruption and harm are grounds for prohibition. When the two coincide, the weightier consideration prevails. Thus, when harm threatens, eating carrion takes precedence, because the harm of death is worse than the harm of consuming impure food.

“Backgammon and chess” and similar competitive games involve countless harms and offer no benefit recognized by Islamic law, let alone one that could counterbalance those harms. At most, they entertain and relax the soul, just as the wine drinker seeks to do. Yet ample relief can be found in permissible activities that neither obstruct beneficial pursuits nor bring about harm. Allah has made what He permits sufficient for the believer, sparing him what He forbids, and through His bounty has freed him from dependence on anyone else:

“Whoever fears Allah, He will make for him a way out and provide for him from where he does not expect.”

In Sunan Ibn Mājah and elsewhere, Abū Dharr relates that when this verse was revealed, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“O Abū Dharr, if all people acted upon this verse, it would suffice them.”

In this verse, Allah, glorified be He, explains that He wards off harm from the one who fears Him by providing him with a way out of circumstances that constrain others. He also brings him benefit and provides for him from where he does not expect. Everything that sustains a living being—including what gives souls relief and what they need for their well-being and contentment—is part of provision. Allah Most High grants this to those who fear Him by doing what He commands and abandoning what He forbids.

Whoever seeks this through backgammon, chess, and similar forms of gambling is like someone who seeks it through wine. The wine drinker seeks relief, but it only increases his weariness and distress, even though it may afford him