Al-Adab Al-Mufrad
Al-Adab Al-Mufrad 1267
حَدَّثَنَا عِصَامٌ، قَالَ: حَدَّثَنَا حَرِيزٌ، عَنْ سَلْمَانَ الأَلَهَانِيِّ، عَنْ فَضَالَةَ بْنِ عُبَيْدٍ، وَكَانَ مَجْمَعًا مِنَ الْمُجَامِعِ، فَبَلَغَهُ أَنَّ أَقْوَامًا يَلْعَبُونَ بِالْكُوبَةِ، فَقَامَ غَضْبَانًا يَنْهَى عَنْهَا أَشَدَّ النَّهْيِ، ثُمَّ قَالَ: أَلاَ إِنَّ اللاَّعِبَ بِهَا لَيَأْكُلُ قَمْرَهَا كَآكِلِ لَحْمِ الْخِنْزِيرِ، وَمُتَوَضِّئٍ بِالدَّمِ. يَعْنِي بِالْكُوبَةِ: النَّرْدَ.
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
‘Isam related to us: Hariz related to us, from Salman al-Alhani, from Fadalah ibn ‘Ubayd, who was at a gathering. News reached him that some people were playing kubah. He rose angrily and forbade it in the strongest terms. Then he said: ‘Know that the one who plays it and consumes its winnings is like one who eats pig’s flesh and performs ablution with blood.’ The source explains: ‘Kubah means dice.’
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The Arabic explicitly glosses kubah as nard (dice); the English witness instead calls it backgammon.
The final comparison is translated as written, retaining its emphatic rhetoric.
يَعْنِي بِالْكُوبَةِ: النَّرْدَ.
The source glosses kubah as nard (dice), which is more specific than backgammon.
Should the game name follow the source gloss “dice” rather than the witness’s backgammon?