What are the harms of gambling and why is it forbidden (haram)?
Elmalılı Hamdi Yazır states the following on the prohibition and harms of gambling while interpreting verse 219 of the chapter of al-Baqara:
Answer as follows: There are big harms and sins in them. In general, both of them destroy goods and ruin people. They affect each other. Alcohol eliminates the mind; the mind is the support for both the religion and the world. A person commits so many murders due to alcohol and commits so many evils due to gambling that it is impossible to list them; they can be understood only by the term "major sins". However, they also have some benefits for people. People experience some joy and flavor; they earn money by selling alcohol. It gives courage to cowards and strength to one's character. Some people obtain goods by gambling. However, their sins and harms are much more than their benefits.
Then, their benefits are not real and strong benefits. The joy they give causes the mind to be covered. The temporary courage causes disasters. The temporary character harms the health; the goods that one obtains will not be useful for him; a little benefit will bring about a lot of harm. Those who become addicts cannot abandon them easily. To sum up, the joy and flavor they give are personal and temporary but the harms and bad outcomes caused by them are both personal and social; they are both material and ethical.
Answer as follows: There are big harms and sins in them. In general, both of them destroy goods and ruin people. They affect each other. Alcohol eliminates the mind; the mind is the support for both the religion and the world. A person commits so many murders due to alcohol and commits so many evils due to gambling that it is impossible to list them; they can be understood only by the term "major sins". However, they also have some benefits for people. People experience some joy and flavor; they earn money by selling alcohol. It gives courage to cowards and strength to one's character. Some people obtain goods by gambling. However, their sins and harms are much more than their benefits.
Then, their benefits are not real and strong benefits. The joy they give causes the mind to be covered. The temporary courage causes disasters. The temporary character harms the health; the goods that one obtains will not be useful for him; a little benefit will bring about a lot of harm. Those who become addicts cannot abandon them easily. To sum up, the joy and flavor they give are personal and temporary but the harms and bad outcomes caused by them are both personal and social; they are both material and ethical.
They are contagious like infectious diseases. Those who do not suffer at the beginning will definitely suffer in the end. It is not logical to prefer a definite and general harm in return for an imaginary benefit. Eliminating the harm is preferred to obtaining benefit. Then, they need to be haram logically. The verse expresses that they are religiously haram through an indirect indication. If there had not been any other verses regarding wine in the Quran, only this verse would have been enough to render it haram.
However, this prohibition would not have been a prohibition understood from the words of the expression itself; there could be some people who would think they would limit the harms of alcohol and make use of its benefits by relying on their mind. Therefore, some Companions thought it was not prohibited religiously but rationally; then, the following verse rendered it haram religiously in a clear and definite way: "They are an abomination; ... eschew them" (al-Maida, 5/90).
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