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Worldly Gamblers |
Universal Gamblers |
Play Currency: Cash. |
Play Currency: Righteous works. Lifetime, increasing value that buys peace and happiness, now and forever. |
Venue: Hotel casino. |
Venue: Planet Earth. |
Prize: Limited by pool collection or capped by house rules. |
Prize: Unlimited and never shared. No commissions or government taxes on winnings. God’s tax (charity) is multiplied manifold and returned. Play for free with no limit on tries as long as your efforts are sincere. Some bad debts can be carried forward for a long time and can eventually be converted to fantastic credit. |
Attitude: House is happy for you to lose and may be structured for that. Barring a few techniques, no one can make you win. Most of the time, others have to lose for you to win. |
Attitude: “House” wants you to win and helps you win with: |
Outcome: The deals are random. Card/roulette dealer does not know the outcome. Wins are based on luck. Some technique is used but the outcome is unpredictable because everything depends on the deal. |
Outcome: The deal is never random. Every deal is part of a specific process to help you win. Wins are based on efforts not luck. Just being allowed to play is already a phenomenal piece of luck. When you play by God’s rules, ‘lucky doors’ open out of nowhere when you need them the most. |
Result: Gambler may be guided to be a practicing Submitter someday. Or may even make it under 2:62, 46:15 in accordance with God’s will and knowledge. |
Result: “Gambler” is already a Submitter and will win if the game is played correctly. But if the gambler loses, the fall is likely harder because the rules and expectations of the game were already known. Never take God’s mercy for granted. |
Intoxicants and Gambling Prohibited
[5:90] O you who believe, intoxicants, and gambling, and the altars of idols, and the games of chance are abominations of the devil; you shall avoid them, that you may succeed. [5:91] The devil wants to provoke animosity and hatred among you through intoxicants and gambling, and to distract you from remembering GOD, and from observing the Contact Prayers (Salat). Will you then refrain?
How gambling is an abomination of the devil.
There was a time when horse racing was a big part of my life. I was born into a racing family from both my parents’ sides and we owned many successful race horses. While betting did not interest me much, I loved the whole concept of horse racing. The graceful animals thundering down the track, the unique racing colors of owners, the visits to the stables planning the race with the trainer and jockey for days before a race, all had me passionately engaged in that life.
Yet, all along, something instinctively made me feel that all this was not right. My “very religious Muslim family” justified racing as a business because they believed they applied deep strategy to the sport, similar to how they made investments in other businesses.
I tried to apply this justification for myself, but it was only after I became a submitter that I began to really understand why the negatives of gambling far outweigh any benefit gambling provides. Finally, it took me two full seasons after becoming a submitter to become certain that the horse race track is not a venue for submitters to play their gamble.
Animosity, hatred and distraction from the remembrance of God.
The greed of instant money and fame that horse racing provides is so high that it truly breeds animosity and hatred among people, and distracts you from the remembrance of God.
1. If you win, you pride yourself in picking the clear winner, even if the win was by the tip of a nose. Of course, you never count the times you didn’t pick the winner (which was more often than not). You rarely hear people praise God for a win, unlike submitters, who are happy to give God credit for all the good in their lives. (Gambling fires up the ego and does not encourage remembering/praising God.)
2. No one is really happy if you win, because for you to win, they had to lose. Dignity is also at stake because it means you knew how to pick the winner and they didn’t. Congratulations are fake social gestures which you can easily recognize from their body language. (Gambling kicks in ego, vanity, jealousy.)
3. The anxiety rush is so high just before and after the winning post, it can make you completely forget about God and cause you to shout out arrogantly, often using foul language. (Gambling can make you disregard God and make you behave disrespectfully.)
4. When you lose, you are instantly suspicious and accusative. “They pulled the horse, they misled us on the chances, the trainer didn’t do his
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