RIYADH: Grand mufti Sheikh Abdullah al-Sheikh said that playing chess is forbidden in Islam, TheNewsTribe.com learnt from British newspaper The Guardian reported.
While answering a question on a television show in which he issues fatwas (religious decrees) after listening to viewers’ questions, Sheikh said playing the board game is ‘haram’ (forbidden) as it encourages gambling and is a waste of time.
He claimed that the game was “included under gambling” and was “a waste of time and money and a cause for hatred and enmity between players”.
Al-Sheikh justified the ruling by referring to a verse in the Quran banning “intoxicants, gambling, idolatry and divination”.
Iraq’s Supreme Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani too had issued a decree terming the game ‘haram mutlaqan’ (forbidden absolutely or under any circumstances), with or without betting.
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