Al-Adab Al-Mufrad
Al-Adab Al-Mufrad 1259
حَدَّثَنَا فَرْوَةُ بْنُ أَبِي الْمَغْرَاءِ، قَالَ: أَخْبَرَنَا إِبْرَاهِيمُ بْنُ الْمُخْتَارِ، عَنْ مَعْرُوفِ بْنِ سُهَيْلٍ الْبُرْجُمِيِّ، عَنْ جَعْفَرِ بْنِ أَبِي الْمُغِيرَةِ قَالَ: نَزَلَ بِي سَعِيدُ بْنُ جُبَيْرٍ فَقَالَ: حَدَّثَنِي ابْنُ عَبَّاسٍ، أَنَّهُ كَانَ يُقَالُ: أَيْنَ أَيْسَارُ الْجَزُورِ؟ فَيَجْتَمِعُ الْعَشَرَةُ، فَيَشْتَرُونَ الْجَزُورَ بِعَشَرَةِ فِصْلاَنٍ إِلَى الْفِصَالِ، فَيُجِيلُونَ السِّهَامَ، فَتَصِيرُ لَتِسْعَةٍ، حَتَّى تَصِيرَ إِلَى وَاحِدٍ، وَيَغْرَمُ الْآخَرُونَ فَصِيلاً فَصِيلاً، إِلَى الْفِصَالِ فَهُوَ الْمَيْسِرُ.
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Farwah ibn Abi al-Maghra’ related to us: Ibrahim ibn al-Mukhtar informed us, from Ma‘ruf ibn Suhayl al-Burjumi, from Ja‘far ibn Abi al-Mughirah, who said: Sa‘id ibn Jubayr stayed with me and said: Ibn ‘Abbas related to me that it used to be said, ‘Where are the shares in the slaughtered camel?’ Ten men would gather and buy the camel for ten young camels. They would cast the arrows, and the allocation would fall to nine, then continue until it fell to one. The others would owe a young camel each, continuing through the young camels. That is gambling (maysir).
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The description of the old arrow-lottery and its successive shares is difficult and has been translated closely; the source's phrase إلى الفصال is retained in sense as the sequence of young camels.
The English witness paraphrases the distribution differently; this translation follows the Arabic wording.
فَيَجْتَمِعُ الْعَشَرَةُ، فَيَشْتَرُونَ الْجَزُورَ بِعَشَرَةِ فِصْلاَنٍ إِلَى الْفِصَالِ، فَيُجِيلُونَ السِّهَامَ، فَتَصِيرُ لَتِسْعَةٍ، حَتَّى تَصِيرَ إِلَى وَاحِدٍ
The wording describes an archaic arrow-lottery with camel shares/young camels, but the exact mechanics are not explicit in this text.
Should this passage be rendered from a separately verified account of the pre-Islamic maysir practice?