Chess and the Divine Decree

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Original article can be found here. Translated by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, this is a writing by the famous Algerian scholar, mystic and resistance fighter Abd al-Qadir al Jaza'iri (1808-1883), rahmatullahi alayhi. For a discussion of chess in the wider legal context, refer to here. In the meantime, enjoy...

It would be honor enough for the people of India had they bequeathed us nothing but chess, a game that, like the sun itself, has traversed the entire globe. Indeed, people everywhere hold high in esteem and deem intelligent anyone who masters it or even plays it well. Such being the case, in how much greater esteem should we hold the brilliance of its ingenious inventor?

His name was Sissah b. Dahir, and he invented chess for Shah Ram around 500
CE, the king of India, after the Persian Ardashir b. Babak (d. 393 BH/241 CE) invented checkers for the first of the latter kings of Persia. The Persians and their king took great pride in checkers, which soon became their national pastime. However, when Sissah b. Dahir, the Indian philosopher, introduced the game of chess to the world, all the sages of his time immediately recognized its superiority over checkers.

After demonstrating the game to Shah Ram, Sissah completely beguiled the king and
overjoyed him with its ingenious qualities. Shah Ram informed Sissah that he could “ask
whatever reward desired, and it shall be granted.” Sissah replied, “I ask only that you take
one grain of wheat and place it upon the first square of my board and then continue to
double it with each additional square until the last square is reached, and bestow upon
me all the grain that has accumulated.”

The bemused king could only laugh at such a paltry request and informed Sissah that
he could not comply with such an insignificant request for such a momentous invention;
moreover, the king had already resolved to grant him a much greater prize. Sissah
informed him that his original request was all he wanted.

They continued to debate the point until the king realized how resolute Sissah was in his
desire. Finally, the king commanded his factor to fulfill the inventor’s request, but when
the ministers began to calculate just how much wheat would be needed, they realized
the impossibility of the request. They explained that they did not have enough wheat in
the royal storehouses to fulfill the request. The king scoffed and demanded an explanation.
The ministers sat down with the king and illustrated their calculations, and he
soon comprehended the reality of their conclusion. The king then turned to Sissah and
said, “In your request, you have revealed to us something even more wondrous than your
invention!”

Whoever ponders the game of chess, and reflects deeply upon the nature of its pieces
and the fixity of its patterns will realize that a profound secret concerning the nature of
destiny has been disclosed to him by the simplest of methods. This could only result from
its originator being a realized sage who revealed his profound wisdom in the arrangement
and organization of his game.

In fact, God, the Exalted, revealed to the formulator of chess what God Himself has pre-eternally performed, what is pre-existent in His knowledge, and what occurred in His first determination of
the cosmos. For this reason, no other person, save the game’s originator, shared with him its creation. Moreover, this reveals why all those who play chess are constrained by the predetermined limits decreed by the game’s inventor. And, although the player of chess is in complete subordination to the originator’s decreed limitations, the player’s own merit and effort or neglect and lassitude will determine whether he wins or loses the game of chess.

Indeed, both players, despite being entirely free to choose their actions, to deliberate
their possibilities, to utilize their strategies, and to exert all of their personal efforts in
their moves are nonetheless entirely circumscribed in their possibilities, due to the very
limitations predetermined by the inventor himself. They cannot break the laws set, nor
exempt themselves from the limited possibilities given. In this way, they are fated yet
appear free and, equally, they are free yet appear fated!

The inventor caught a glimpse of a sacred secret among the paradoxes of providence
and realized that all human beings are freely accruing their actions and either gaining
the rewards of their right moves or suffering the consequences of their wrong ones. Furthermore,
he realized that God, the Exalted, does not oppress His servants, but that they
themselves are the oppressors. Human beings are fulfilling their destiny without being
forced against their will in the paths they pursue. Indeed, God left the creation free to
err or act appropriately. Analogously, the inventor of chess has decreed certain things for
those who play his game, and while they are held to those limitations, they are nonetheless
free to choose their moves while not being stripped entirely of their own volition.

Hence, if one plays his game well, it is to his advantage, and if poorly, it is to his detriment.
Neither of the two players can escape the limits of the squares, the pieces, their numbers,
and their prescribed movements. Had its inventor allowed other possibilities, the players
would have been constrained by them as well.

Ponder this well, for chess is an edifying metaphor and a sagely invention. It develops
the rational component; increases intelligence; diverts the mind from distressing matters;
reveals hidden character traits in its players, as games are wont to do; and imitates very
realistically military situations that result in the sweetness of victory over one’s opposition
or the bitterness of defeat at his hands.