All alcoholic
beverages are poisons. This fact is written in all medical books today. It is
stated as follows in a valuable chemistry textbook being used as a basis of
instruction in high schools: Alcoholic beverages, which have been consumed as
intoxicants since ancient times, were being spoken of as a stimulant and as a
condiment when taken in reasonable doses. Recent scientific facts, however,
have proven that even a very small amount of alcohol is ruinous to the
machinery of human body and that its harmful effects survive throughout
generations.
Ibni Ābidīn provides
the following information in the two hundred and eighty-ninth (289) page of the
fifth volume:
Wine [hamr, vin, wein]
is harām in all four Madhhabs, (i.e. in the four Madhhabs called Hanafī,
Mālikī, Shāfiī, and Hanbalī.) It is sinful to drink it or to use it in any
other manner. The only two permissible ways of utilizing it is to make vinegar
from it and for a person about to die of thirst to drink (only) an amount of it
enough to protect him or her from death and thereby to substitute it for
(unavailable) water. Four types of beverages are harām to drink:
1- The first one is
wine. Uncooked grape juice [called must] kept under anaerobic conditions, e.g.
in airtight barrels, produces bubbles of foam and ferments, turning into wine. [In other words, an
enzyme called zymase and which is produced by the ferment called yeast and
present in the grape skins and thence passes into must, promotes the
formentation by breaking down the monosaccharides with six carbon atoms
(hexose) called glucose and levulose (or fructose). The splitting of these
sugars into two yields spirit (ethyl alcohol or ethanol) and carbon dioxide:
C6 H12 O6
---------
> 2 C2 H5 OH + 2 CO2
Because the amount of
sugar in must decreases and the amount of spirit in it increases with time, the
taste of sugar starts to become pungent and biting. Carbon dioxide gas,
by-product of the reaction, rises to the surface in bubbles. This gas carries
the precipitates insoluble in the alcoholic liquid up to the surface, so that
the surface of the liquid becomes covered with spumes. Must has been converted
into wine now. Different wines have different amounts of spirit, ranging
between five percent and twenty percent. Two hectolitres, or two hundred
litres, or a hundred and fifteen kilograms, of grapes yields seventy-five
litres of grape juice. One-fifth of the grape juice is sugar. One-tenth of it
is tartaric acid. The harmful ferments such as acetic acid that are present in
the grape juice are killed by filtering sulphur dioxide gas through it. The
first fermentation is completed in a week.]
Wine containing a
small amount of spirit is harām, too. [According to the Imāmeyn[1], and also in the
other three Madhhabs, it becomes wine without foaming as well.] A drop of it
will not intoxicate, yet it is harām to drink even that much of it. He who says
that it is halāl will become a kāfir [an enemy of Allah].
---------------------------------
[1] Imām Abū Yūsuf and Imām Muhammad, the two
greatest disciples of Imām Azam Abū Hanīfa.
Wine, like urine, is qaba (ghalīz)
najāsat. (Please see the sixth chapter of the fourth fascicle of Endless Bliss for kinds of
najāsat.) It is harām, according to a unanimity of Islamic scholars, to use
it in any way to make medicine from it, to mix it with clay, to make ones
animal drink it, to use it as an enema, or to sniff it into ones nose. It is
not permissible to sell it. Money earned thereby is harām. It is not halāl for
a Muslim to repay his debt with money earned by selling wine. That money will
not be halāl for the creditor, either. Therefore, a wine seller should not be
lent money. A Muslim who drinks even a small amount of wine will be chastised
with one round of hadd, which means flogging with eighty stripes. On the
other hand, consumption of the other three intoxicants will incur the
chastisement hadd only when the beverage drunk reaches the amount effective
enough to intoxicate the consumer. Supposing the foaming of an amount of wine
has been completed and you have boiled it until two-thirds of it is gone; it is
unanimously stated (by Islamic scholars) that the remainder, as well as the
spirit or the raqi obtained by distilling it, is a najāsat-i-ghalīza (qaba
najāsat), like the wine itself. It is written in the book entitled Behjet-ul-fatāwā (or Bahjat-ul-fatāwā)
that all the aforesaid brewages are harām to drink, even a drop of them. More
than forty percent of raqi is alcohol. When raqi that is obtained from wine is
kept for a few years in oaken casks, it turns into brandy.
2- The second one is tilā. When fresh must is
heated on fire or
under sunshine until less than two-thirds of it is gone, [so that more
than one-third remains,] the remainder is termed tilā. When tilā
produces gas and swells and its taste becomes pungent, it becomes
an intoxicant. Now it is something like wine, a najāsat-i-ghalīza,
even a drop of which is harām to consume.
3- The third one is seker (or sakar). When
dates are
macerated, i.e. soaked in water without being exposed to heat, it
becomes what is termed naqī of dates when they are kept there
for some time. Then the mixed liquid starts to foam and assume a
pungent taste, becoming what brewers call seker (date wine).
Even a drop of it is harām to consume.
4- The fourth one is naqī of raisins, (i.e.
macerated raisins).
When raisins are left in cold water, its sugar passes into the water.
The liquid mixture obtained thereby is termed naqī of raisins. If
this mixture releases gas and becomes foamy and assumes a
pungent taste, a single drop of it will be harām. If the beverages
tilā, seker, and naqī (maceration) of raisins do not effervesce
and/or assume a pungent taste, they are halāl to consume, as is
-47-
unanimously reported by Islamic Fiqh
scholars. Seker and naqī are khafīf najāsats. According to Imām Azam (Abū
Hanīfa) rahmatullāhi taālā alaih, the tilās and the sekers and the naqīs
being harām is conditional on their foaming. Since there is not a scholarly
consensus on these three beverages, he who denies the judgment that they are
harām will not become a kāfir.
On the other hand,
there are four beverages that are halāl to consume, according to (the ijtihāds
of) Imām Azam and Imām Abū Yūsuf:
1-
Raisins or dates are kept in cold water
until the sugar in them transfers to the water. Next, all the mixture is heated
until it boils. When it becomes cold it is sieved. The liquid obtained thereby
is called nebīdh
(or
nabīdh) (treacle of dates). Even if the taste of nebīth is pungent, it will be
halāl to consume it, unless it intoxicates you. If it is not heated, it becomes
harām when it foams and assumes a pungent taste.
2-
A mixture of raisins and dates are kept in
water, then the liquid with them all in it is heated and sieved. It is halāl to
consume it even if it has a pungent taste, unless, again, it will intoxicate
the consumer. This beverage is termed khalītān (mixed treacle).
3-
When any one of honey or figs or barley
or wheat or corns or millets or plums or apricots or apples, or the like, is
kept for a while in cold water for a while, it is halāl to drink it below the
level of intoxication, even if the mixture has not been heated before
consumption. For, it is stated as follows in a hadīth-i-sherīf: Wine is made from grapes
and dates. [Such beverages are harām if they will intoxicate the consumer.
So is the case with beer. Raqi obtained from grain is called whisky by British people, and
vodka by Russians. These
beverages contain a fifty or sixty percentage of alcohol.]
4-
The fourth one is muthelleth (an alcoholic beverage
reduced to a third by boiling). If grape juice, when it is fresh yet, i.e.
before it starts to foam and release bubbles of gas, is heated and boiled until
two-thirds of it is gone and one-third of it remains, it is called
muthelleth. Even if it has a pungent taste, it is halāl to drink an amount of
it that will not intoxicate you.
As grape juice is
being boiled (to make grape juice treacle), limestone powder called soil for making pekmez
(grape juice treacle) is added into it to eliminate its sour taste. Thereby (grape
juice treacle termed) pekmez is obtained. The pekmez is called sapa or rob by the French. More
than sixty per cent of the pekmez
-48-
is glucose. When pekmez is beaten with
the white of eggs and boiled down to a consistency of porridge, it turns into
what is called bulama (in Turkish) or raisiné (in French). It is halāl to consume fresh grape juice [called
moūt] or pekmez [moūt cuit] or bulama (raiziné] or boza [bosan]. To make boza,
a kilogram or so of boiled and pounded wheat is washed and put into a saucepan.
Plenty of water is added. The mixture is boiled for a few hours until wheat
particles soften. Being kneaded with water, it is sieved and mixed with sugar,
and beaten until the sugar melts. A glass of boza is added for a yiest. The
liquid thereby obtained is airtighted and kept close to a heater, e.g. a stove,
for a day. The following day the sour beverage will be ready for consumption.
These beverages are
halāl when they are consumed as tonics and digestives and below the levels of
intoxication. They are harām, however, when they are consumed in intoxicative
doses, or only for pleasure small as may the doses taken be, especially when
they are taken in an atmosphere luxuriated in with musical instruments; Islamic
scholars are unanimous in this interdiction.
According to Imām
Muhammad, if any one of these four beverages has released gas and its taste has
become pungent, even a small dose of it below the level of intoxication is
harām to consume. The fatwa[1] has been given so as to agree with this last ijtihād. The same
rule applies in the other three Madhhabs. For, our Prophet stated: If a beverage will
intoxicate when it is taken in a high dosage, it is harām to drink even a small
amount of it. Another hadīth-i-sherīf reads: All intoxicants are
wine, and all of them are harām. This hadīth-i-sherīf states that all the aforesaid beverages
are harām. It must not be construed that the beverages in question are
classified in the same category with respect to their chemical formulas. For,
Muhammad alaihis-salām was not sent to humanity to teach them science or
chemical essences of substances, but to teach them the Islamic rules pertaining
to the usage of substances. When milk from a mare or from a cow or from a
female camel is fermented and assumes a pungent taste, it becomes like the
(aforesaid) muthelleth. The former one, (i.e. the one from a mare,) is called qumis (koumiss or kumiss),
and the latter, (i.e. the other two,) is called kefīr. It is, like beer,
harām. Meni
muskirāt,
a book written by M.Ātif Efendi of Iskilib, provides detailed information on
this subject.
---------------------------------
[1] A conclusive judgment that an Islamic
scholar has made as an answer to Muslims questions and problems.
-49-
[For making beer, barley is steeped in
(warm) water for a week and the grains germinate. In the meantime an enzyme
called amylase
issues.
When the sprouts become well-nigh as long as the grains themselves, they are
pulled apart from the grains. The grains are then kiln-dried and pulverized.
The flour thereby obtained is called malt. In the form of yellow powder or liquid, malt is used as a
medication against a disease characterized by bleeding and extreme weakness and
called scurvy
and
added as a tonic and digestive to babies foods. It does not contain alcohol.
When malt is mixed with hot water and the mixture is allowed to wait for a
while, the amylase it contains ferments the starch and breaks it down,
converting it to malt sugar termed maltose. Cones of common hop (houblon or humulus lupulus) are put into this sugary liquid and
it is boiled. This plant gives an odour to beer and makes it limpid. The hot
liquid is let cool down and barm is added to it. This yeast ferments and breaks down the malt
sugar, converting it to alcohol, and thereby producing beer. Different kinds of
beer contain different amounts of alcohol, varying between two and a half per
cent and five per cent. High doses of it intoxicates the consumer. Malt is a
yellow powder which is sometimes mushy like yoghurt. It is active. The liquid
it exudes is fermentive. Malt is obtained from the sedimentary residues from
beer factories and is also used to cure cutaneous, digestive, and chest
diseases. It is present in leavened dough as well. Because beer releases gas,
foams, and has a bitter and pungent taste, it is harām, according to Imām
Muhammad, to consume it, regardless of the amount consumed or the purpose for
consuming it. The fatwā given is in agreement with this ijtihād. It is stated
as follows in the earliest issue of the year 1979 of Der Stern, a periodical
published in Germany: A research conducted by the cancer research center in
Heidelberg has revealed that beer is carcinogenic. It has been observed that
beer contains considerable cumulative amounts of nitrous amines, which in turn
are agents known to be capable of inducing cancer. Furthermore, beer causes
addiction to alcohol. Piramidon, which had been being used as a medicine to soothe pain, was
withdrawn from markets at the behest of the ministry of health six months ago,
when it was found out that it contained an excessive amount of nitrous amines.
A medium beer-drinker takes an amount of nitrous amines that he would have
taken if he had taken seventy pills of piramidon daily. Crab, an animal, and
malignant tumours called cancer, are called seretān in the Arabic language. The book Nuzhat-ul-ebdān, (a
-50-
Turkish version, rendered by Mustafa Abu-l-fayz Efendi, of the
book Ghāya-t-ul-itqān, which in turn had
been written in the Arabic language by Doctor Sālih Efendi, d. 1081 [1669
A.D.],) treats cancer with an ointment containing crab ashes. The disease
called irq-i-medīnī in the book entitled Teshīl-ul-menāfi, (by Ibrāhīm Ezraq,)
is cancer. One of the medicines prescribed in the book is: A litre of milk
with a palmful of peeled garlic in it is boiled, at evening time, until it
becomes jell-like. It is left outdoors, e.g. somewhere in the backyard, until
morning. It gets moisture from the air. The milk separated is drunk by the
hungry sufferer. Myrrh or aloes may be substituted for garlic.
Of the aforesaid eight
beverages, it is sahīh, according to Imām Azam rahmatullāhi taālā alaih,
to sell any one other than wine. However, the sale done will be (one that is
called) makrūh. [That is, it will be an act termed makrūh tahrīmī. A person who
sells those beverages will be held as culpable as one who has committed an act
of harām and will be sent to Hell in return.] According to the Imāmeyn
rahmatullāhi taālā alaihimā, on the other hand, it is not sahīh to sell the
so-called beverages, either. So is the case with the sales of narcotics such as
opium and heroin. It is harām to drink water mixed with najāsat, (such as
alcohol, urine, etc] It is stated as follows in the book entitled Jawharat-un-nayyira: If fresh grapes
kept in water are boiled before fermentation, it will not be halāl (to drink)
unless two-thirds of it evaporates. Raisins and dates put into water and boiled
for a while are halāl. A beverage prepared thereby is called nebīdh. When a mixture of
fresh grapes and dates or that of fresh dates and raisins is heated in water,
it will not be halāl unless two-thirds of it is gone. So is the case with fresh
grape juice mixed with water in which dates have been left.
It is harām to drink
or eat najāsat such as urine and excrement.
Another act of harām
is to drink beverages that are mubāh in essence, such as water, in an
atmosphere fouled with other acts of harām such as playing musical instruments
or in imitation of disbelievers or sinners[1]. A hadīth-i-sherīf quoted in the two
hundred and thirty-eighth (238) page of the fifth volume of Ibni Ābidīn reads as follows: It
is harām to drink water in imitation of
---------------------------------
[1] This
statement should not be misconstrued so as to confine ourselves to an
unbearable way of life by abstaining from eating and drinking at places where
others are committing acts of harām. Our enjoying ourselves with halāls could
not be fouled by others committing harāms, although avoiding such places is
commendable.
-51-
people drinking alcoholic beverages. In fact, it causes
one to become an unbeliever to perform an act of worship in imitation of
perpetrators of harām acts. An example of that dangerous behaviour is to
perform namāz or read (or recite) the Qurān al-kerīm by mixing the act of worship with an act of harām such as
playing a musical instrument, drinking an alcoholic beverage, and singing.
Please see the twenty-fourth chapter of the fourth fascicle of Endless Bliss. Please see also the
last ten paragraphs of the twenty-fifth chapter of the fourth fascicle of Endless Bliss.
It is stated in the
three hundred and sixty-third (363) page of the fifth volume, and also in the
two hundred and eighty-ninth (289) page of the fifth volume, of Ibni Ābidīn
rahmatullāhi taālā alaih: That araq-i-hamr [raqi and alcohol] is qaba
najāsat like wine, and that a person who drinks a beverage of that sort until
he becomes intoxicated is to be chastised with (flogging termed) hadd is stated
unanimously by Islamic scholars. Many another Islamic scholar states that the
chastisement called hadd will be inflicted upon a Muslim who drinks only a drop
of it. We should not believe those fāsiq [wicked] people who are trying to
decriminalize the consumption of alcoholic beverages by lying that they are
alcohol-free and therefore it is halāl to drink them. Since all alcoholic
beverages contain spirit, they are, like water mixed with wine, are
najāsat-i-ghalīza and it is harām to consume them. Therefore, liquids that
contain spirit and which are applied on the skin for medical purposes, e.g.
tincture of iodine and camphor alcohol, or for mundane purposes, such as eau
de cologne, should be washed out before performance of namāz. It is halāl
to use them externally, to use spirit for fuel, or to sell and buy them for
similar purposes. Liquids such as benzol, benzene, acetone, carbon
tetrachloride, and kerosene are not najs (unclean, foul, dirty). Namāz can be
performed without washing them out. It is not a sinful act to use alcohol as a
solvent in technology.
In modern medicine two
basic criteria whereby a good externally used disinfectant [substance that destroys
disease-causing microorganisms] is evaluated are that its essential
effectiveness, (which we expect it to have,) should be thoroughgoing and
all-inclusive, and that its side-effects, (which we do not wish to have,)
should exist in the minimum levels, if not non-existent at all.
a) Alcohol is quite
ineffective against some bacteria. And the only ones it kills of the rest are
the vegetative (active) ones. Bacteria normally wrap themselves in protective
cells called
-52-
spores. When they find an opportunity to
grab, they resume their vegetative (active) characteristics. Alcohol cannot
kill bacteria in spores, either. In fact, the alcoholic liquids in markets
contain bacteria with spores. As has been evinced in recent experiences, the
dense alcohol applied to the skin forms a compact layer on the surfaces of
bacteria already existent around, and can no longer penetrate them. Hence, it
does not have a thoroughgoing and comprehensive effect.
b) Again, the dense
alcohol applied to the skin is more destructive to the epithelium than it is to
the bacteria. In fact, their destruction results in the formation of a layer of
proteins, which in turn sets up a barrier against its effect on bacteria.
Failing to provide
these two characteristics, alcohol is not a good disinfectant. There are
hundreds of other substances that are possessed of far better effectiveness
than alcohol, and without its drawbacks to the bargain. As a matter of fact, in
quite a number of countries today, an alcohol-free version of tincture that is
called Mersol and which is more effective is being used instead of the
alcoholic tincture of iodine. It is a solution prepared by melting two grams of
a red powdery substance called mercuro-chrome in a hundred grams of water; with
that aside, ready-made mersol is being sold in pharmacies. As statistics
indicate, the amount of alcohol that was used for medical purposes in the
European clinics by the Christian year 1934 was a tenth the amount that had
been used back in 1900. The decrease goes on apace daily. Perhaps the only
incentive for alcohols still being preferred in medical industry is its
already being produced and used lavishly on account of the place it occupies
among the ingredients of intoxicants.
Solid substances such
as henbane (hyosciamus niger) and hemp, or hashish (powdered dry top
leaves of hemp,) and opium, (which is obtained from opium poppy = palaver
somniferum,) are harām when they are taken in doses deleterious to mental
balance. It is written in the final section of Eshriba (drinks, beverages) in
the book entitled Ibni Ābidīn that it is permissible to use them medically and
to dull the senses. A person who says that it is halāl to take high doses of
them will become a heretic (mubtedi), if not a disbeliever.
[Namāz performed in a state
of drunkennes will not be sahīh. And it is makrūh to perform namāz in a state
of slight drunkenness below the level of inebriation. For, it is harām to drink
even a drop of one of the alcoholic beverages for pleasure. If there is a whit
of
-53-
something that is harām in a persons stomach or on his clothes,
the namāz he performs will be makrūh. So is the case with performing namāz at a
place obtained by extortion. Ahmad Zerrūq rahmatullāhi taālā alaih, (846
[1442 A.D.] - 899 [1493], Trabl-us-Gharb [Tripolitania in Libya],) is quoted,
in the book entitled Maraj-ul-bahreyn[1], to have stated that people of wajd (or vejd) and hāl are
excusable for their (wrong and excessive) utterances and behaviour if they lose
their consciousness. So is the case with dancing and yelling during the simā.
People in that state are like lunatics. However, if that ecstacy of tasawwuf is
not natural, i.e. if they are conscious and are aware of the state they are
going through, they will not be excusable. They will be sinful. Although they
will not be sinful for failing to perform their prayers (within their
prescribed periods of time) when they are unconscious, they will have to make
qadā of the prayers they have missed as soon as they recover consciousness,
(i.e. they will have to perform the prayers they have missed,) since they have
experienced that state of unconsciousness of their own volition. (Please see
the twenty-third chapter of the fourth fascicle of Endless Bliss for prayers left to
qadā.) When people of Tasawwuf make statements and exhibit behaviours contrary
to Islam on account of the spiritual ecstacy they are undergoing, it will not
be permissible for others to follow suit, (i.e. to say or do the same wrong
things.) Although the ecstatic men of Tasawwuf themselves will not be sinful
for their misstatements and/or misbehaviour, other people will be sinful for
imitating them, if they do so. The same rule applies to people undergoing a
state of subconsciousness as a result of the alcohol or other intoxicants they
have taken. Being intoxicated, they will be excusable for their misbehaviour;
however, since the state of deprivation is their own making, (in addition to
the sin of having committed an act of harām,) they will have to make qadā of
the acts of worship they have failed to perform within the period of time
assigned for them.]
It is stated in a hadīth-i-sherīf quoted in the book Riyād-un-nāsikhīn: If a beverage will
intoxicate when it is taken in a high
---------------------------------
[1]
That book was written by Abd-ul-Haqq Dahlawī rahmatullāhi taālā alaih,
(958 [1551 A.D.] - 1052 [1642], Delhi.) There is yet another book
that also is entitled Maraj-ul-bahreyn and which was written by Rukn-ad-dīn
Cheshtī rahmatullāhi taālā alaih, d. 983 [1575 A.D.],) who
was the master of Abd-ul-Ahad, who in turn was the father of Imām Rabbānī quddisa
sirruh.
-54-
dosage, it is harām to drink even a small
amount of it. [The books entitled Zawājir and Kunūz-ud-deqāiq also quote this
hadīth-i-sherīf.] It is stated in another hadīth-i-sherīf: Wine-drinking is the
gravest of the grave sins. It is the mother, the prime mover of all sins. A
person who drinks wine will not perform namāz. He will commit fornication with
his mother, with his paternal and maternal aunts. Another
hadīth-i-sherīf admonishes: Do not make friends with a wine-drinker. Do not attend his
funeral! Do not give him your daughter in marriage, and do not marry his
daughter! You should know for certain that when a wine-drinker is resurrected on the Rising Day, his face will
be black and his eyes blue. His
tongue will be out, hanging down, and he will be stinking. Others will
run away from the unbearable stench he will be emitting. Another
hadīth-i-sherīf reads: The wine-drinker will not enter Paradise. According to the
credal tenets taught (by the scholars) in the Madhhab of Ahl as-Sunnat, a
person who commits a grave sin will not become an unbeliever (on account of the
grave sin he has committed). His īmān will not be gone. The person meant in the
hadīth-i-sherīfs is one who says that it is halāl to drink wine or whose heart
does not look on drinking wine as a wicked act. Perhaps what is meant in the
hadīth-i-sherīfs quoted above is this: Should a habituated wine-drinker die
without having made tawba, his īmān will have been gone by the time he takes
his last breath. A person who wants to pass to the Hereafter with his īmān safe
and sound in his heart should avoid drinking wine. People who drink wine as
well as those who procure it, carry it, prepare it, sell it, and/or produce it,
will be accursed by Allāhu taālā and His blessed Messenger. They will not be safe against worldly
disasters. Prayers of namāz performed in an inebriated state will not be
accepted, although they will be sahīh. In other words, a person who does so
will not attain any thawāb for them. A hadīth-i-sherīf reads: A person who makes a
habit of drinking wine is like a person who worships (idols called) vesen (or wasan).
Ahmad bin Muhammad bin
Ismāīl Tahtawī rahmatullāhi taālā alaih provides the following information
in his commentary to the book entitled Imdād-ul-fettāh: Human statues made of wood or gold are called sanems. Human statues made
from stone are called vesens. Pictures of living beings or lifeless things painted on
textile fabrics or walls or other panels are called sūrats or taswīrs (depictions). When
they are pictures of living beings only, they are called timthāls (images, models). It
is one of the kinds of polytheism to worship sanems, vesens, sūrats, or
timthāls, and to
-55-
believe that they are capable of being useful or harmful. People
who worship such things are called idolaters or polytheists.
It is stated in a
hadīth-i-sherīf: If a person drinks a mouthful of wine,
Allāhu taālā will be angry with him for three days.
Unless he
makes tawba for that sin, for three days he will not be given thawāb for his
pious acts or forgiven for his sins. It is feared that he may leave worldly
life without īmān if he dies within those three days. If he drinks a goblet of
wine, Allāhu
taālā will
be angry with him for forty days.
It is stated as
follows in books of Fiqh e.g. in Hidāya: That wine made from grapes is harām is a fact stated
unanimously by Islamic scholars. A person who says that it is halāl will become
a disbeliever. If a person drinks a drop of it, it will be necessary to flog
him for (the chastisement called) hadd. Saīd bin Museyyib, (Abū Muhammad
Medenī rahmatullāhi taālā alaih, one of the greater ones of the Tābiīn[1], and also one of the
greatest seven scholars in Medīna, 15 - 91 [710 A.D.], Medīna,) stated: Wine
consumption was the cause of the acts of perfidy and apostasy that were
perpetrated by the past ummats, (i.e. by the Believers of Prophets previous to our Prophet.) Uthmān radiy-Allāhu
anh, while making the prescribed speech called Khutba on the minbar of
Rasūlullah sall-Allāhu alaihi wa sallam as he was in office as the
Amīr-ul-Muminīn, admonished: O you, mankind! Avoid drinking wine! Know this:
Drinking wine is the mother of all vices. A hadīth-i-sherīf reads: Wine provides no cure;
nor does it contain any medicinal quality. It begets illness.
The book entitled Erbaīn, (by Yahyā bin Sheref
Nevevī [or Nawawī] rahmatullāhi taālā alaih, 631 [1233 A.D.] - 676 [1277],
Damascus,) quotes Abdullah bin Mesūd radiy-Allāhu anh, (d. 32 [651 A.D.],
the sixth earliest Believer,) as having stated: If a wine drinker died without
having made tawba, reopen his grave! If you see his face turned in the
direction of Qibla, kill me!
Wine drinkers allege
that (drinking) wine provides five benefits: 1- It enhances blood formation,
reddens the face, and
---------------------------------
[1] If a
Muslim contemporary with our blessed Prophet had seen
the beloved Messenger of Allah, or talked with him, or heard his most beautiful
voice, at least once, that Muslim was, and has been, called a Sahābī.
Its plural form is Sahāba or Ashāb-i-kirām. Muslims who saw at least one
of the Sahāba and not the blessed Prophet himself,
are called the Tābiīn.
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beautifies the consumer, they say. 2- It gives strength, they
say. 3-It fascilitates digestion, they say. 4 It stimulates sexual libido,
they say. 5- It protects health, they say. All these allegations of theirs are
wrong. Experiences show that facts are quite the other way round. A
hadīth-i-sherīf reads: Muslims who perform midnight prayers will have a beautiful face. Drinking wine or
committing any other sin will not beautify ones face. Ones face will become
beautiful by ones performing acts of worship and piety. Faces of wine drinkers
and (faces) of other fāsiq people become ugly. Allāhu taālā declares, as is purported in the
sixty-sixth (66) āyat of Anfāl Sūrah: A hundred Believers will defeat two hundred unbelievers. In other words, one
weak Believer will defeat two strong disbelievers. Wine fascilitates digestion.
Yes. It does. Yet there are other things that fascilitate digestion and which
are useful, and which are halāl as well. And, as is expressly stated in the
hadīth-i-sherīf that we quoted earlier in the text, it is not the case that it
protects health. It is a firsthand fact that wine consumption causes various
diseases. It weakens the human mind. It breaks down the liver. It ruins the
brain and the nerves. [A statement in the (A.D. 1970-1) issue of the pharmacy
bulletin reads as follows: According to a report presented by French doctors,
the number of mouth and throat cancer cases among the consumers of alcoholic
beverages has proven to be twice (the number of those among others).] The
harms of wine are more than its uses, and wine drinking is much more sinful
than any other wicked act. As for its stimulating sexual libido; that is the
case only for a few early years, whereafter the high tide reverses and there
begins a never-ending fall that reaches its nadir with the mans becoming
incapable of observing his wifes conjugal rights, which in turn ends in a
complete ruination of his family happiness. Here we end our translation from Riyād-un-nāsikhīn.
The following extract
has been paraphrased from the 17 March 1979 issue of the (Turkish) daily news
paper Türkiye, published by Mr. Enver Ören of Istanbul: According to
information released by the American Medical Association, alcohol consumption
has been reported to cause two hundred and five thousand deaths yearly in the
United States. Most of these deaths have been found to be of liver cirrhosis
and of driving in a state of drunkenness. It has also been reported that
alcohol addiction among the fourteen-to-seventeen year olds has been escalating
and the resultant incidence of violence and delinquency in schools has been on
the increase.
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