Denouncing all illicit earnings equally
ONLINE gambling — gambling via internet websites and other social media platforms has become talk of the town and nowadays most people especially youngsters are involved in it; wasting both their precious time and money.
Among many modern social evils, online gambling is one of the modern social evils which has become a big-name in our society and currently it has gained its fame widely.
People, in the greed of becoming rich overnight, remain busy in this social menace most of the time and waste their precious time and money.
Ironically, people keep discussing and debating about its permissibility and impermissibility on religious and moral grounds.
Such a situation clearly depicts the ignorance, illiteracy and dilapidated state of our society. On intellectual and moral grounds, any activity (like gambling) in which there are maximum chances of losing money, wastage of time and which makes us addicted should always be avoided as it has ill effects on us which may ultimately lead to our ruination.
Gambling also has many negative social impacts as a major group of society loses its wealth and just a few people win due to gambling.
As G.B. Shaw has rightly said that in gambling there can’t be many winners, so it results in the creation of ‘poor’ and ‘rich’ socio-economic classes in the society and destruction of many well-off families.
Speaking through Islamic perspective, participating in each and every kind of online gambling (like Poker, Casino, sports betting etc.) is totally forbidden.
But unfortunately nowadays most people especially youngsters in our society remain busy in the social evil of online gambling.
The saddest part of the story is that due to their ignorance and feeblemindedness, most among them don’t find online gambling as a social evil which is religiously and morally prohibited but they rather try to legitimize it through their insane explanations and interpretations.
As the members of a religious and civilised society, it is our religious and moral duty to keep ourselves and other people away from online gambling.
Because one of the most important interactions between individuals is that of ordering or encouraging what is good while prohibiting or preventing that which is evil.
But at this juncture; many questions arise which put a question mark on our proclamation of being members of a civilised and religious society.
Is the money earned through corruption and bribery permissible?Should we give such earnings in charity or donate them for religious constructions?
Is the system of usury or interest based business permissible in our religion?Isn’t profiteering and gouging a heinous crime on religious and moral grounds?
If we are not performing our duties and responsibilities honestly, how can we claim that our earnings are legitimate?
It is our religious and moral duty to avoid and denounce all these illicit activities equally. We shouldn’t forget that money earned through other illicit means is equally prohibited in our religions, hence we should equally avoid and denounce it.
As the money obtained through online gambling is Haraam, so is the money acquired through bribery and corruption and they need to be equally avoided.
If we are condemning online gambling, we have to condemn usury, profiteering and gouging also.
If we are not performing our duties honestly, our wages are not different from the earnings acquired through online gambling.
We can’t change the principles from our religious scriptures according to our choice and label things as Haraam and Halaal as per our desires.
Different laws, rules and regulations have already been stated in our religion regarding these matters and we have to follow them strictly.
We can’t keep a biased view regarding these issues, otherwise it will be our double standard and we will be counted among hypocrites.
—The writer is contributing columnist, based in Kulgam, Kashmir.
