Che Lazou
27-02-2019, 04:28 PM
Religion is advice, and I have no intention of pushing one set of advice over another, only to make known what knowledgeable people have to say about certain subjects. To what extent life is composed of games is a topic that I am interested in. I already messaged you with the link on some Islamic scholars views on the game of chess which I include again here: https://islamqa.info/en/14095
The same scholars say (here: https://islamqa.info/en/22305) that there are basically two categories of games:
Games fall into two categories:
The first category is games which help in jihaad for the sake of Allaah, whether that is physical jihaad (fighting) or verbal jihaad (i.e., knowledge), such as swimming, shooting, horse-riding, and games which involve developing one’s abilities and Islamic knowledge, etc. These games are mustahabb and the one who engages in them will be rewarded so long as his intention is good and he seeks to support the religion thereby. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Shoot, O Bani Adnaan, for your father was an archer.” Shooting or archery includes by analogy all similar actions.
The second category is games which do not help in jihaad.
With this in mind one can analyse the game of chess for oneself.
Here is a quote from the web article https://www.gingergm.com/blog/notorious-chess-players-aleister-crowley about Aleister Crowley's experience with chess:
I found out the following about Mister Crowley and his interest in chess in a Wikipedia entry:
‘A third hobby of his was chess, and he joined the university’s chess club, where, he later stated, he beat the president in his first year and practised two hours a day towards becoming a champion-“My one serious worldly ambition had been to become the champion of the world at chess.”[25] He also related having beaten famous chess players Joseph Henry Blackburne and Henry Bird and was on his way to becoming a master chess player, till he visited an important 1897 tournament in Berlin where’
Sounds like he was a pretty decent chess player. Now I found the next bit very interesting!
“I saw the masters - one, shabby, snuffy and blear-eyed; another, in badly fitting would-be respectable shoddy; a third, a mere parody of humanity, and so on for the rest. These were the people to whose ranks I was seeking admission. “There, but for the grace of God, goes Aleister Crowley”, I exclaimed to myself with disgust, and there and then I registered a vow never to play another serious game of chess.”
What can we infer from this? Well, the so called ‘most evil person’ in history gave up chess because he was disgusted with what he saw. He basically thought that a better and more worthwhile hobby, would be attempting to raise demons for the rest of his life!
So he decided to choose the company of demons to chess players. That's not a good sign!
Go figure lol
The same scholars say (here: https://islamqa.info/en/22305) that there are basically two categories of games:
Games fall into two categories:
The first category is games which help in jihaad for the sake of Allaah, whether that is physical jihaad (fighting) or verbal jihaad (i.e., knowledge), such as swimming, shooting, horse-riding, and games which involve developing one’s abilities and Islamic knowledge, etc. These games are mustahabb and the one who engages in them will be rewarded so long as his intention is good and he seeks to support the religion thereby. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Shoot, O Bani Adnaan, for your father was an archer.” Shooting or archery includes by analogy all similar actions.
The second category is games which do not help in jihaad.
With this in mind one can analyse the game of chess for oneself.
Here is a quote from the web article https://www.gingergm.com/blog/notorious-chess-players-aleister-crowley about Aleister Crowley's experience with chess:
I found out the following about Mister Crowley and his interest in chess in a Wikipedia entry:
‘A third hobby of his was chess, and he joined the university’s chess club, where, he later stated, he beat the president in his first year and practised two hours a day towards becoming a champion-“My one serious worldly ambition had been to become the champion of the world at chess.”[25] He also related having beaten famous chess players Joseph Henry Blackburne and Henry Bird and was on his way to becoming a master chess player, till he visited an important 1897 tournament in Berlin where’
Sounds like he was a pretty decent chess player. Now I found the next bit very interesting!
“I saw the masters - one, shabby, snuffy and blear-eyed; another, in badly fitting would-be respectable shoddy; a third, a mere parody of humanity, and so on for the rest. These were the people to whose ranks I was seeking admission. “There, but for the grace of God, goes Aleister Crowley”, I exclaimed to myself with disgust, and there and then I registered a vow never to play another serious game of chess.”
What can we infer from this? Well, the so called ‘most evil person’ in history gave up chess because he was disgusted with what he saw. He basically thought that a better and more worthwhile hobby, would be attempting to raise demons for the rest of his life!
So he decided to choose the company of demons to chess players. That's not a good sign!
Go figure lol