Prayer at the Earliest hour

Question: In order to prove the merit of praying at the earliest hour some scholars have said that Imam-e-Zaman (a.s.) prays at this time and they who pray at this hour their prayer is also accepted by Allah due to the barakah (bounty) of the prayer of Imam (a.s.). But we also know that different areas fall in different time zone’s. Leave alone the different countries sometimes one country has many times zone’s. In this condition only the prayer of the people of that area is with Imam (a.s.) where he is praying. Apart from this the prayer timings of other people cannot be same as that of Imam (a.s.). How can we solve this problem?

Answer: Those who have presented this argument to prove the merit of praying at the earliest hour, they mean to say that the prayer which is prayed the earliest hour those prayers are equal to the prayers with Imam (a.s.) because he (a.s.) also prays at the earliest hour. And it is due to this equal value, the prayers of others are also accepted by Allah. This is in no way connected to the matter of time zone’s etc. In other words it does not mean that prayers have to be performed at one single time. Rather it denotes the fact that all the Prayers have been performed at their respective earliest hours, which every person performs according to his time zone.

Why do we pray facing the Kiblah?

Question: Why is it necessary to stand facing the Kiblah during Prayer? While the Almighty Allah is present everywhere. And He is not in any one particular direction.

Answer: Facing the Kiblah during prayers is not because Allah is in a particular place or direction. Like the Holy Quran has specially mentioned twice in the verses regarding the Kiblah and said:

‘And Allah’s is the East and West, therefore, whither you turn, thither is Allah’s purpose…” [Surah Baqarah 2:115]

 and again He says:

“Say: The East and the West belong only to Allah: He guides whom He likes to the right path.” [Surah Baqarah 2:142]

It is necessary to stand facing the Kiblah during Prayer because man is helpless as he has a body. That he has to face somewhere during Prayer. Even though Islam desires that one should earn as much benefit as possible, because we all know that the Holy Ka’ba is the oldest center of worship of Allah. It is the house whose foundation was laid by the stalwart of Monotheism, Hazrat Ibrahim Khalilullah. And it has always remained the center of attraction for all the holy personalities and divine prophets.

Facing this center of Monotheism during prayer is like facing to Allah. It is correct that Allah is not in a particular place. Even though one who is standing before the center of Monotheism he is more attentive towards Allah than he would have been if he were facing some other direction. And he considers himself present in the Court of Allah.

Apart from this the paying attention of all Muslims around this sanctified center five times a day elevates in their heart the spirit monotheism and Oneness and it helps in the unity of community and Islamic brotherhood. It links the Muslim Communities which are spread to the four corners of the earth and it shows their distinction and grandeur. And lastly it gives the message of the Universal teachings of Islam to the world in the form of the Unity of belief and views.

If a person looks from outside the earth the arrangement of the rows of Muslims in prayer he would see that all their rows are in form of circles whose center is one and the same and in the heart of those circles is the Ka’ba and it is an indication of the Unity of Muslims.

What is the decree regarding the Game of Chess?

Question: Is there in Islam any problem in playing chess? Indeed you know that generally there is no betting in chess. It can almost be claimed that in some cases this game prevents gambling. Keeping this in view, nowadays, chess is considered a mental exercise and it is becoming popular day by day. I request you to give me a reply supporting by proofs.

Answer: In the view of our scholars it is a decided matter that playing with the instruments of gambling is not permitted even if there is no betting. It is possible that in the background of this decree is the philosophy that contact with those instruments needlessly make man attracted to gambling and especially regarding chess numerous traditions of Imam (a.s.) have reached us that the use of the instruments of this game is prohibited in every way and by giving it the title of mental exercise it does not affect the prohibition of chess. Because it is possible that other kinds of gambling can be performed by naming it mental exercise. Because along with playing cards there are many kinds of gambling that have an aspect of mental exertion. But their evils cannot be denied.

The detailed discussion is that chess is a form of gambling. It was invented for this very purpose. Finally it can be said that gambling is of two kinds.

Deliberation is not needed in some cases and the winning of the game is based on chance. While in other games deliberation is also needed. Chess is from the second kind of games.

In addition to this chess is an imagination game because it presents the sketch of an imaginary battlefield which is a reminder of the historical periods of man. Therefore one of the defects of chess is its imaginary nature.

It view of the above statements no doubt remains regarding the prohibition of chess. Even though there are some people who do not accept anything unless they get its confirmation from the western world. Therefore we consider it necessary that those points should be mentioned that we have found in the writings of western scholars. May be this would help in preventing the spread of chess, which has unfortunately spread to every corner of our country and it is played with an excuse that it helps in the power of deliberation and concentration.

This is the discussion of the famous French chess player, Chantal Shaw Dossier regarding whom it is said: “No one can achieve the distinction to be the world champion of chess except Chantal and the international press and especially the Russian sports writings have praised his expertise and superiority.

Let us see what Chantal himself says:

“It is sufficient to prove that chess is a tiring game by saying that after the 40^th step if there is no result the game is postponed as happened in Reg or Veg and it was calculated that after the first four steps the total possible tricks were 318976584 and in the first ten step were 169518829100544…Then he mentions those people are champions of chess Regarding them he says that it is possible that apart from chess in other matters their capability might be less than the medium stage. That is what I want to say is that chess is really a dangerous game, because it makes the other mental functions useless and weak. It can be said that chess creates mental disturbance.

After this Chantal quotes the statements of another Champion Kheel who always said: In order to win you have to hate your opponent. And in addition to other losses of chess it is an undesirable ethical harm.

We must remember that chess is a kind of gambling. Here we must understand that Islam has prohibited gambling even if there is no winning and losing. Why is it so? It is because actually no gambling is without the condition of losing and winning. The truth is that when there is no question of winning or losing money, this win and loss is in the mind of the contestants.

Moral harms
If the remembrance of Allah leaves one’s heart and this love and affection that is there is no faith in a person, then what remains? The only thing that remains is evil thoughts accomplishment by a restless, fearful, sorrowful man.

The experts of moral science are unanimous on the fact that the true happiness and success of man is hidden in the balance of his feelings, which is compared to justice. And this word actually denotes the making of one’s life compatible to the way shown by the Almighty, which is the straight path or Al-Siraat al-Mustaqeem. Because the soul gets peace and tranquility here alone.

In a tradition quoted from our leaders there is indication towards this interesting points: The true man is that who has faith.

Gambling is one of those varied actions by which man becomes forgetful of the remembrance of Allah and becomes deprived of faith and good deeds.

Commander of the faithful (a.s.) saw some people who were busy playing chess. He told them the sentence that idol-breaker Ibrahim (a.s.) used to say:

What are these images to whose worship you cleave? [Surah Anbiya 21:52]

In the Islamic law it is haraam to play chess to make others play it and buy or sell the instruments of Chess. This is found in a number of traditions.