Apparently it mostly is, though there are some schools that consider it permissible as long as it doesn't cause you to gamble or miss prayers or anything like that. I suppose one could gamble on a chess game, although I have never heard of anyone doing so.
Don't get me wrong; I don't hate Muslims or Islam or anything like that. I've met some very good Muslims, some of whom even kept to these ideas about haram and halal at least for themselves (and for the most part). I don't have any problem with people living however they choose, as long as they don't try to coerce others into submission.
Chess, though? That seems like maybe the 'wise scholars' just weren't all that smart and got their feelings hurt. Chess is a great game, one that reliably rewards careful and deep thought.
2 comments:
It's interesting that Islam today considers chess haram. According to WIkipedia, the Muslim world started out very much liking it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess#Origins and scroll into the fourth paragraph
I wonder what happened since then.
Eric Hines
It's debated... there is a (disputed) story of a Muslim slave, who asked whether he should try to stop his owner and his owner's friends from playing chess, apparently because it was either a distraction (keeping them up late playing) or because they were gambling on the outcome. This, despite the fact that the slave had no power to stop them and would be at risk of being beaten for speaking up. The answer was, yes, he must try to forbid a wrong, even if he can't achieve that end and would be put in danger because of it.
And this is a primary difference between Islam and Christianity, when it comes to "public morals": Christians acknowledge that trying to ban some wrongs, creates even worse wrongs in the process. In those cases, as a prudential judgment, the smaller wrongs should be tolerated, because the treatment is worse than the disease. Islam allows for no such considerations, at least formally-- wrong must be banned and punished, always. So more moderate Muslims are perpetually being "out flanked" by a more extreme assertion of their co-religionists, and there is not much that they can do to defend themselves against the accusation of being a bad Muslim who will deserve divine retribution. (It doesn't help that there are wild, even contradictory, assertions about what Muhammad and his close friends actually did/said circulating around, from centuries after his life and death no less...)
--Janet
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