Some modern games: We want to know the Islamic ruling on them?

The questioner : In some modern games, we want to know the Islamic ruling on them? ... What is the Islamic ruling on them?

The Shaykh : These games are undoubtedly of various types. For example, "al-Shiddah" is a card game. This is undoubtedly a game of the disbelievers who associate partners with Allah, who depicted their belief and their shirk (associating partners with Allah) in some images printed on some of the cards. So in it... there is the young man and there is the girl, and so on. So playing with this type of cards, as you know, our research is not about gambling... which is forbidden. But playing with this type of cards is a matter of amusement, and as they say, killing time and wasting it. This is due to the ignorance of Muslims today, who do not know the old Arab wisdom: "Time is like a sword; if you do not cut it, it will cut you." This is what Muslims today live with, wasting what is more valuable than gold and silver, which is time. So the point is that playing with these cards without gambling is not free from being disliked (makruh) at the very least, because of the use of these images and the preoccupation and bending over them with interest in playing, as is observed from the players. This reminds me of a report (athar) narrated from Ali (may Allah be pleased with him), and I mean what I say when I say "narrated," because the word "narrated" is an indication of weakness. It was narrated from Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) that he passed by a group of people playing chess, and they were bent over it. So he said to them: ? He rebuked them with this verse. Why? Because in chess there are images, there is a horse, there is an elephant, there is a king, and so on. And these people were bent over it. So he used it as evidence against them, disapproving of this preoccupation and bending over. They undoubtedly do not intend the images; they intend the game and exercising the memory and retention, and so on. But this posture is ugly... bending over the images and the pictures. From this aspect, I see that playing with these cards is disliked because of the images in them, in which the disbelief of those who innovated these cards is depicted.
Then, then playing with these cards has types: some is based on exercising the memory and retention, and some is based on what they call luck. So this last type has a resemblance between it and dice (nard), for which there is a correct and explicit text prohibiting it. It was reported in "Sahih Muslim" from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: . Likewise, he prohibited - in the hadith of Abu Musa al-Ash'ari - : . So dice are based on luck, and therefore you find the players with it, one of them calling out: "O dice, O luck." This type of playing with cards has the same ruling as playing with dice, which is forbidden by explicit text. As for what is of the type of exercising the memory; its ruling is the ruling of chess, with the exception that I say: its ruling is the ruling of chess in terms of exercising the mind, but we have excluded these images, and it is not permissible to bend over them. Therefore, we advise whoever is afflicted with this play sometimes to cut off the heads of these small images, so that it is permissible to keep them in this play. And so on.
This research has forms and, I mean, details that may take a long time to delve into. And the criterion is that any play that contains images or statues; one must stay away from it. As for what does not contain any of that; it is permissible to play with it sometimes for the sake of recreation. As for making that a habit such that it takes all his time and all his thought, and perhaps he forgets his prayer and his worship, perhaps he forgets his family and his children; then in that case, it is considered like intoxicants that prevent from prayer and from the remembrance of Allah. So in some cases, engaging in these games for the sake of amusement and recreation is not a problem. As for some of the ones that the brother named, in reality, I am ignorant of their names, because I have not heard of them until now. So if this is sufficient, the answer as a principle from which the Muslim can proceed: whatever games contain images and statues, one must stay away from them. And whatever does not contain any of that, and the play is not based on luck and the lottery, but on memory and the use of the mind; it is permissible with the last condition, which is that it does not prevent from the remembrance of Allah, from prayer, and from the remembrance of Allah.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : What games? Where are these games? I want to remember whether I have seen them or not?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : If we return to our words, to the principle: does it contain images or not.

Another questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : If you mean by challenge, a wager; then this is one of the reasons for prohibiting this play. But if the challenge is intellectual and does not lead to any prohibition.