gambling is greater, and the pain and harm involved in playing are greater. Perhaps most people’s primary aim in gambling is simply the enjoyment of playing and competing, just as most people’s primary aim in drinking wine is the pleasure it affords. He prohibited payment for such activities only because it amounts to taking money for something of no benefit, and thus to consuming wealth unjustly, just as He prohibited the proceeds from wine, carrion, swine, and idols.

How, then, can financial harm alone be regarded as the rationale for the prohibition, when it is secondary, while the fundamental harm—the corruption of the mind and heart—is disregarded? Wealth sustains the body, and the body is subordinate to the heart. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Indeed, there is a piece of flesh in the body which, when sound, makes the rest of the body sound, and when corrupt, makes the rest of the body corrupt. Indeed, it is the heart.”

The heart is the seat of remembrance of Allah Most High and of the true essence of prayer.

Thus, the gravest harm for which wine and gambling are prohibited is the corruption of the heart, which governs the body: it is diverted from the remembrance of Allah and prayer, for which it was created, and falls into the mutual enmity and hatred that corrupt it. Prayer is the right of the True One, while mutual love and loyalty are the rights of His creatures. How can consuming wealth unjustly compare with this?

It is well known that the welfare of the body takes precedence over the welfare of wealth, and that the welfare of the heart takes precedence over the welfare of the body. Wealth is inviolable only because it sustains the body. For this reason, jurists placed the division on acts of worship before the division on transactions in their books; together, these secure the welfare of the heart and body. They then discussed the division on marriage, for the preceding divisions concern the welfare of the individual, whereas this concerns the welfare of the species, which is perpetuated through marriage. Then, having discussed what promotes welfare, they discussed what wards off harm in the division on criminal offences.