Just how good is the Lottery?
as-salamu ‘alaykum,
I was in our local Tesco’s supermarket one evening (post-tarawih), I was with my daughter as she was enjoying a ride on the Thomas the Tank engine kiddie ride next to the lottery booth/stand where you get your lottery ticket and pick your numbers and take the ticket over to the cashier.
I noticed a Pakistani man in full shalwar kameez and a topi (skull cap) trundle over to the booth and start filling in the ticket. I couldn’t resist and said to him “paiee-ji kamaz-kam Ramzan neh mahinay vich eh kam tho chohrow” in English “my dear brother, at least in this month of Ramadan leave this habit”. He responded in Punjabi, “it’s for someone else” and as he walked away he looked back and said “anyway, it’s not a bad thing”, I said to him that even the non-Muslims consider this gambling and if they consider it gambling and we as Muslims don’t then this is a really bad thing. He mumbled something and went away.
It seems to me that there is a widespread belief amongst many Muslims that somehow the National Lottery and other similar lotteries are not gambling.
wa’as-salam
Mas’ud
www.masud.co.uk
One thought on “Just how good is the Lottery?”
A friend was saying that if you go to birmingham, any of those famous asian streets with all the shops/takeaways with the addition of a betting shop – well it is common to find full bearded, salwar wearing brothers betting on whatever. Now thats disturbing. Not as disturbing as ‘sunnah wearing’ brothers/uncles involved in the drug, ‘body selling’ and other dark trades. I guess its a good way to hide from society and even worse- your conscience. Hiding from your conscience is a pretty bad disease (kinda like ‘covering/”kuffaring” stuff’).
But then the warlords in afghanistan look just like pious muslims and do the most evil stuff. Perhaps Allah is teaching us the art and craft of *discernment* – to separate ‘image’ from ‘substance’ -and kinda like get emotional security by belonging to Him and not any ‘tribe’.
In that respect its kinda cool how the quran is the ‘furqan’ (‘that which discerns’/confirms truth etc) – if quran/furqan is preserved perhaps so are those gifted with the ability to discern – just gotta stick with them.