Racing and wagers

Sayyiduna Iyad al-Ash'ari (may Allah be pleased with him) said: I was present at the Battle of Yarmuk. Sayyiduna Abu Ubaydah bin al-Jarrah (may Allah be pleased with him) said, "Who will race horses against me?" A young man said, "I am ready to, if you will not be angry." The narrator said: He got ahead of him. I saw the two braids of Sayyiduna Abu Ubaydah (may Allah be pleased with him) bouncing, while he was behind that young man on an Arabian horse.

Al-Zuhri said that in the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) the Companions used to race.

Al-Zuhri (may Allah have mercy on him) said: The first to give a prize for it was Sayyiduna Umar bin al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him).

Ibrahim (may Allah have mercy on him) said that Alqamah (may Allah have mercy on him) had a non-Arab horse on which he used to race.

Sa'id bin al-Musayyib said, concerning a man who is given something for jihad and some of it is left over with him: Whatever is left over belongs to him.

Ibrahim (may Allah have mercy on him) said that Alqamah raced against a man and got ahead of him, and then he pulled off his bridle.

Sa'id bin al-Musayyib said: There is no harm in racing two horses if a third horse is also entered among them. If it comes first, the winning prize is for it, and if it does not come first, nothing is due from it.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever enters his horse between two horses while being certain that it will win, then this is gambling. And whoever enters his horse between two horses without being certain that it will win, then this is not gambling."

It is narrated from Abdullah bin Husayn that Sayyiduna Hudhayfah (may Allah be pleased with him) had a grey horse on which he outran the people in a horse race. The narrator said: I went in to him and he was sitting on his feet, his backside not touching the ground, out of joy; he was drenched in sweat and it was dripping from him. His horse was at its feeding trough, and he was looking at it, while people were coming in to him and congratulating him.

Sayyiduna Hudhayfah (may Allah be pleased with him) outran the people in a horse race, riding a non-Arab horse.

It is narrated from Amir that Sayyiduna Umar bin al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) raced a horse and came first in the race.

It is narrated from al-Zuhri (may Allah have mercy on him) that the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) used to compete on horseback, on riding camels and on foot.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) kept his horses hungry to prepare them for racing. Then he raced the horses he had kept hungry from al-Hafya' to Thaniyyat al-Wada', and he raced the horses that had not been kept hungry from Thaniyyat al-Wada' to the mosque of Banu Zurayq.

Abu Labid said: Horses were released for a race while al-Hakam bin Ayyub was governor over Basrah. We went out to watch them, and we said, "It would be good if we went to Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him)." So we went to him, and he was in his palace at al-Zawiyah. We said to him, "O Abu Hamzah (may Allah be pleased with him)! Did the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) compete in horse races in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)?" He said, "Yes, by Allah! The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) raced on a horse of his named Sabhah, and it came in first, and he was delighted at that."

It is narrated from Bakr that two men saw a deer while they were both in the state of ihram. They competed over it and made a wager, and one of them struck it with a stick and broke it. Then they both came to Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), and Sayyiduna Abd al-Rahman bin Awf (may Allah be pleased with him) was sitting beside him. Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) asked Sayyiduna Ibn Awf (may Allah be pleased with him), "What is your opinion?" Sayyiduna Ibn Awf (may Allah be pleased with him) said, "This is gambling, even if it was a contest."

Ja'far narrates from his father that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) held horse races and set a prize among them of some uqiyahs of silver, and he held camel races; and the narrator did not mention a prize for them.