Sūrat al-Baqarah
Section 31 of 59 · Surah Studies · Mufti Abdul Rahman Mangera
Wine and Gambling
The twelfth concerns the one who becomes a murtadd — who loses his faith and apostatises. That discussion is taken up at verse 217.
Thereafter, from verse 219, Allah (swt) says:
۞ يَسْـَٔلُونَكَ عَنِ ٱلْخَمْرِ وَٱلْمَيْسِرِ ۖ قُلْ فِيهِمَآ إِثْمٌ كَبِيرٌ وَمَنَـٰفِعُ لِلنَّاسِ وَإِثْمُهُمَآ أَكْبَرُ مِن نَّفْعِهِمَا ۗ وَيَسْـَٔلُونَكَ مَاذَا يُنفِقُونَ قُلِ ٱلْعَفْوَ ۗ كَذَٰلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ ٱللَّهُ لَكُمُ ٱلْـَٔايَـٰتِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَفَكَّرُونَ
“They ask you about wine and gambling. Say, “In both there is great sin, and some benefits for people. And their sin is greater than their benefit.” And they ask you as to what they should spend. Say, “The surplus”. This is how Allah makes His verses clear to you, so that you may ponder” (2:219)
The two are placed together: the first drink, khamr, which is wine, and the second maysir, which is gambling. Both are grievous addictions.
The one may be smelt upon a man's breath. The other is the more deadly for that very reason. Speak to a man addicted to gambling and the difficulty appears at once: there is nothing to smell, and no way of telling that he gambles at all. With drink one may tell from the slurring of the speech, perhaps from the manner of walking; with a gambler one simply does not know. That is why gambling is at times the worse of the two, being so difficult to remedy. Both are named here. The Prophet (peace be upon him) called wine umm al-khabāʾith, the mother of evils, and gambling is among the worst of deeds.