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guardian: Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti has ruled that chess is forbidden in Islam, saying it encourages gambling and is a waste of time.

Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh was answering a question on a television show in which he issues fatwas in response to viewers’ queries on everyday religious matters.

He said chess was “included under gambling” and was “a waste of time and money and a cause for hatred and enmity between players”.


Sheikh justified the ruling by referring to the verse in the Qur’an banning “intoxicants, gambling, idolatry and divination”. It is not clear when the fatwa was delivered.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s supreme Shia religious authority, has previously issued rulings forbidding chess.

After the 1979 Islamic revolution, playing chess was banned in public in Iran and declared haram, or forbidden, by senior clerics because it was associated with gambling. But in 1988, Iran’s then supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, lifted the ban and said it was permissible as long as it was not a means of gambling. Iran now has an active confederation for playing chess and sends players to international games.

Moves to suppress chess are likely to have come as a surprise to the seventh-century Muslims who conquered Persia and adopted the game before exporting it to Europe.

Muslim scholars tend to place chess, a skill-based game, in a different category from games of chance, such as dice, but frown upon it if it distracts a person from performing the five daily prayers. Placing bets under any circumstances is forbidden.

Nigel Short, the British chess grandmaster, told the BBC that forbidding chess in Saudi Arabia would be a “great tragedy”. “I don’t consider chess to be a threat to society. It is not something that is so depraved as to corrupt morals,” he said. “Even Ayatollah Khomeini came to the conclusion that he’d gone too far and repealed his own ban.”

The region’s clerical establishment figures are no strangers to seemingly strange fatwas, or edicts. In the early 2000s, Saudi and other clerics issued a fatwa against the popular Pokémon franchise, and during football’s 2010 World Cup in South Africa, religious scholars in the United Arab Emirates said that using the widely reviled vuvuzela instrument was forbidden if the sound produced was above 100 decibels.

It is unlikely that Sheikh’s ruling will be enforced, and more plausible that chess will be relegated to the status of other minor vices, such as music, which many in the clerical establishment frown upon. Moreover, since the ruling was in response to a specific question, it was probably meant as an advisory opinion rather than a formal edict.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/21/chess-forbidden-in-islam-rules-saudi-arabia-grand-mufti

A life without pokemon is a life without meaning

Lol. I watched it on RT this morning. He doesn't know the power of chess or he's scared of the power of Chess. Chess can open the Pineal Gland giving your third eye the freedom to sit on the food chain.

His argument holds no water because it can also be used to categorize all games. He should be clamouring for all type of competitive sports to be banned if he doesn't have any grouse with Chess.

No, I won't agree with this..

bqlekan:
No, I won't agree with this..

Why?

Reyginus:
Why?

Allah warned us to stay away from gambling and things that can deter us from remembering him ( praying). Chess doesn't belong to these categories. If disciplined, It's like asking me to stop playing drafts, PlayStation, surfing nairaland or even playing football.


The points he raised about 'hatred among it's player's ' doesn't hold any ground whatsoever.
This is extremism and it should be curbed.

bqlekan:
Allah warned us to stay away from gambling and things that can deter us from remembering him ( praying). Chess doesn't belong to these categories. If disciplined, It's like asking me to stop playing drafts, PlayStation, surfing nairaland or even playing football.


The points he raised about 'hatred among it's player's ' doesn't hold any ground whatsoever.
This is extremism and it should be curbed.

Okay. I thought you had problem with the news itself.

Reyginus:
Okay. I thought you had problem with the news itself.

not at all

bqlekan:
not at all

Okay.

Haram police at work

Reyginus:
Lol. I watched it on RT this morning. He doesn't know the power of chess or he's scared of the power of Chess. Chess can open the Pineal Gland giving your third eye the freedom to sit on the food chain.

His argument holds no water because it can also be used to categorize all games. He should be clamouring for all type of competitive sports to be banned if he doesn't have any grouse with Chess.

Indeed, you and others suggest he may be afraid of people learning to think for themselves

I, personally though, think you give him too much credit

wiegraf:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/21/chess-forbidden-in-islam-rules-saudi-arabia-grand-mufti

A life without pokemon is a life without meaning

I think they just have a problem with the piece called "Bishop", but they're too embarrassed to say it! I propose a name change of that piece to "sheikh" or "mufti" if you prefer that it preserves its dual syllabic form...I'm pretty sure that will keep the mufti's well pleased, and probably encourage them to persuade god to reconsider the haramness of the game.

"Persuade god" you ask?...Well, the truth is that nobody understands god's delicate sensitivities and low self-esteem more than the sheikhs...as the saying goes.."it takes one to know one".

wiegraf:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/21/chess-forbidden-in-islam-rules-saudi-arabia-grand-mufti

A life without pokemon is a life without meaning

Fellow pokemon fan here.

wiegraf:
Indeed, you and others suggest he may be afraid of people learning to think for themselves

I, personally though, think you give him too much credit

Lol. The reason I presented two options. And they did accordingly out of fear and respect.

AgentOfAllah:
I think they just have a problem with the piece called "Bishop", but they're too embarrassed to say it! I propose a name change of that piece to "sheikh" or "mufti" if you prefer that it preserves its dual syllabic form...I'm pretty sure that will keep the mufti's well pleased, and probably encourage them to persuade god to reconsider the haramness of the game.

"Persuade god" you ask?...Well, the truth is that nobody understands god's delicate sensitivities and low self-esteem more than the sheikhs...as the saying goes.."it takes one to know one".

You have a point.

AgentOfAllah:
I think they just have a problem with the piece called "Bishop", but they're too embarrassed to say it! I propose a name change of that piece to "sheikh" or "mufti" if you prefer that it preserves its dual syllabic form...I'm pretty sure that will keep the mufti's well pleased, and probably encourage them to persuade god to reconsider the haramness of the game.

"Persuade god" you ask?...Well, the truth is that nobody understands god's delicate sensitivities and low self-esteem more than the sheikhs...as the saying goes.."it takes one to know one".

this is a wonderful post

I am stealing this from the comments section of that article, which is along the lines of your post

guardian reader x: You're right. It might be worth appealing to His Grand Muftiship and offering a few concessions so as to slip the game past his ban, eg

The Queen to wear a burkha
The Bishops to be renamed Imams
In case of any typing errors, the Pawns to be re-named Migrant Workers
The Knights to be Jihadi Fighters
The Rooks to be Vultures, so as to make desert-dwelling players feel at home

No betting of course, but any cash left over over a tournament to be designated "Accrued Prophet".

And of course the king has to stop wearing a cross

EDITED for clarity

Reyginus:
Lol. The reason I presented two options. And they did accordingly out of fear and respect.

Ah, I see.

In that case, again I don't exactly claim to be in his head, but if I were to choose between fear and/or respect, I'd choose fear and a healthy dose of genius

wiegraf:
this is a wonderful post

stolen from the comments section of that article



And of course the king has to stop wearing a cross

Lol abeg o...To call my comment a copy of reader x's is to diminish the masterpiece that their comment is! Whoever that person is definitely deserves an award!
To be clear though, I didn't even open the link to the article, so I could never have seen the comment.

AgentOfAllah:
Lol abeg o...To call my comment a copy of reader x's is to diminish the masterpiece that their comment is! Whoever that person is definitely deserves an award!
To be clear though, I didn't even open the link to the article, so I could never have seen the comment.

Nononononono

that's not what I meant. blame my poor writing skills (and inebria.... never mind)

I meant I was stealing my response to you from the comments on the article, not that you copied from there. In fact, I believe sticking with dual syllabic as you suggest is best!

no vex

wiegraf:
Nononononono

that's not what I meant. blame my poor writing skills (and inebria.... never mind)

I meant I was stealing my response to you from the comments on the article, not that you copied from there. In fact, I believe sticking with dual syllabic as you suggest is best!

no vex

Lol...no yawa! Invite me for a bottle next time