Grand Ayatollah Shirazi remarks on new gambling tools during daily scholarly session

The daily scholarly meeting of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Sadiq al-Hosseini al-Shirazi was held on Saturday, the 22nd of Rajab. In this session, like the previous meetings, the Marja answered the questions of the attendees about various jurisprudential issues.

Grand Ayatollah Shirazi discussed the ruling of some forms of gambling, and said: We have two Sharia-based indications for gambling being haram; one is related to some special forms of gambling such as Arba’ata Ashar, which have been explicitly declared as haram by jurists. And, there is a general indication that gambling is haram, which is absolute, and therefore, the ruling of gambling applies to any new thing that is made with which gambling takes place, and it is haram.

His Eminence continued: But if something is not usually used for gambling, even if it is sometimes used for gambling, it is not considered a gambling instrument, and the ruling on gambling does not apply to it, and it is not haram.

Regarding the ruling on new tools and instruments, he said: If something is not an example of one of the prohibited, there is no issue with it, because according to the principle of ‘Helliyah’, everything is halal, unless there is an indication that dictates it is haram. So, if something is used for gambling, it is haram. But if it is not used for gambling, or if no secondary title is applied to it, it is not haram per se.

Grand Ayatollah Shirazi emphasized the criterion of Urf in relation to gambling, and said: The rule is that the Urf (general opinion or customary practice) of each city and region is different in terms of determining whether something is gambling. So, if one city considers something as gambling, and another city does not consider it gambling, the ruling is different in each city.