Before Islam, the Arabian community used to drink alcohol aggressively. They were true addicts to it. To them, it was like tea; that\u2019s how often they drank it. And it was from Allah\u2019s (the Creator of Heaven and Earth) wisdom to deal with such an issue gradually. Otherwise, they would have abandoned the whole religion.<\/p>\n
But let\u2019s first learn the harms of alcohol to understand why it was forbidden:<\/p>\n
Prayer (salat) is a fundamental part of the Muslim lifestyle.<\/p>\n
It is an obligatory call to God five times a day. A ritual called \u201cwudhu\u201d\u00a0(woo-dhoo) is also necessary before the prayer which involves a water-saving\u00a0ablution to spiritually connect to God.<\/p>\n
Even when the early Muslims recognized alcohol for its\u00a0medicinal uses, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) linked the drink to a \u201cdisease\u201d, saying\u00a0there is no cure in things that God has forbidden. Like the first puff of a cigarette,\u00a0it is up to individual will-power to continue or stop smoking.<\/p>\n
Khamr<\/em>\u00a0(wine) also describes how alcohol consumption\u00a0makes it difficult to differentiate between right and wrong. A Muslim\u2019s faith is founded\u00a0on intellect, rational thought and good judgement. Anything that could Bars and environments where alcohol is served could lead to drinking and in the\u00a0presence of children, it could teach them to explore drinking. Mature Muslim\u00a0adults are role models and carry a message that one doesn\u2019t have to drink to have\u00a0a good time, to work or to socialize. And since alcohol affects the concentration\u00a0and actions of people, crimes may be done in the presence of children, which\u00a0leads to even more corruption in the community. And instead of helping them to\u00a0live in a better world, we push them even harder to be a worse version of\u00a0ourselves.<\/p>\n Any intoxicating substance, whether it\u2019s wine, beer,\u00a0gin, whiskey or drugs, affects a person\u2019s faculties and behavior. The result is\u00a0the same, and the Qur\u2019an outlines that it is the intoxication -which makes one\u00a0forgetful of God and prayer- that is harmful.<\/p>\n Although a controversial statement, in Islam,\u00a0alcohol is viewed as the \u201cMother of all evils\u201d (<\/strong><\/em>hadith<\/strong><\/em>)<\/strong><\/em>, because of its close relation\u00a0to creating or making criminal behavior easier to commit. That isn\u2019t an omission\u00a0of the medicinal uses of alcohol, but to say that prevention is better than cure.\u00a0Thus, the Qur\u2019an explains,<\/p>\n \u201cSay, \u201cIn them (wine and gambling) is great sin and [yet, some] benefit for people. But their sin is greater than their benefit.\u201d (<\/strong>Quran 2\/219).<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Now let\u2019s get to know how it was gradually prohibited\u200b:<\/p>\n \u201cThey ask you about wine and gambling. Say: \u2018In them is great sin and [yet, some] benefit for people<\/strong>.’\u201d\u00a0(Quran 2\/219)<\/strong><\/p>\n Then people said, \u201c(intoxicants and gambling) were not prohibited for us.\u00a0Allah only said, \u2018In them is a great sin, and (yet, some) benefit for people.’\u201d So they kept\u00a0drinking Khamr until one day, one of the Muslims led his companions in the\u00a0Maghrib prayer (the Sunset Prayer) and mixed up the Ayat (verses of the Qur\u2019an) in his recitation. Thereafter, Allah sent\u00a0down a stronger statement.<\/p>\n Then, people would drink before the time of the prayer so that they would attend\u00a0the prayer while sober. A firmer Ayah (verse of the Qur\u2019an) was later revealed.<\/p>\n So they said, \u201cWe abstained, O Lord!\u201d Later, some people said, \u201cO Allah\u2019s\u00a0Messenger! Some people died in the cause of Allah, while some others died in\u00a0their beds, but they used to drink alcohol and indulge in gambling, which Allah\u00a0has made a Rijs (defilement) of the work of Shaytan (Satan).\u201d So Allah sent down, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said, Umar (one of the Prophet\u2019s companions) was summoned and the first Ayah was recited to him, but he still said, \u201cO Allah! Make the verdict of Khamr clear to us.\u201d Then the Ayah in Surat An-Nisa\u2019 was revealed.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cO you who have believed, do not approach prayer while you are intoxicated until you know what you are saying\u201d ( Quran 4\/43)<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Then, the Prophet had someone herald when it was time to pray, \u201cThose in\u00a0a drunken state are not to approach the prayer.\u201d Umar was again summoned\u00a0and the Ayah was recited to him, but he still said, \u201cO Allah! Make the verdict\u00a0concerning Khamr clear to us.\u201d<\/p>\n Well, with all of these harms, sometimes people don\u2019t know enough to look at the harms. They look at what they were accustomed to. And people of Arabia, at that time, were accustomed to drinking a lot.<\/p>\n And if they were told point-blank, \u201cstop doing this\u201d, they were not going to stop\u00a0immediately. So, they were given gradual stages of weaning them off it.<\/p>\n It is from the absolute wisdom to show great consideration to the human part in\u00a0people, and to make it extremely easy for them to leave what they are attached to the most. And since Allah the Almighty is the One who created humans and He knows exactly how they feel, think, and interact, He descended a law which best suits their human nature in the way that makes it most easy for them to follow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Before Islam, the Arabian community used to drink alcohol aggressively. They were true addicts to it. To them,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jislam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jislam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jislam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jislam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jislam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15375"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jislam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15376,"href":"https:\/\/www.jislam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15375\/revisions\/15376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jislam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jislam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jislam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\njeopardize this behavior is forbidden, and another reason why Muslims don\u2019t\u00a0drink.<\/p>\n4. It gives the wrong message to children<\/strong><\/h3>\n
5- Alcohol makes one forget\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n
6. Alcohol can lead to criminality<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Stages of prohibition of alcohol in Islam<\/h2>\n
1st stage\u200b \u2013 It is permissible <\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n2nd stage \u2013 Not Before Prayer
\n\u201cO you who have believed, do not approach prayer while you are intoxicated until you know what you are saying\u201d (Quran 4\/43)<\/strong><\/h3>\n3rd stage \u2013 It would be better to go away from them
\n\u201cO you who have believed, indeed, intoxicants, gambling, [sacrificing on] stone alters [to other than Allah], and divining arrows are but defilement from the work of Satan, so avoid it that you may be successful.\u201d (Quran 5\/90-91)<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n\u201cThere is not upon those who believe and do righteousness [any] blame concerning what they have eaten [in the past]\u201d (Quran 5\/93)<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\u201cHad they been made impermissible for them, they would have abandoned them as you have abandoned them.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n4th stage \u2013 It is haram and one of the great sins
\n<\/strong>Then, the Ayah in Surat Al-Ma\u2019idah (5:91) was revealed, and Umar was\u00a0summoned and it was recited to him. When he reached the part of the Ayah that reads,
\n\u201cSo, will you not then abstain\u201d<\/strong> ( Quran 5\/91)<\/strong>
\nUmar said, \u201cWe abstained, we abstained.\u201d Abu Dawud, At-Tirmidhi, and\u00a0An-Nasa\u2019i recorded this Hadith. `Ali bin Al-Madini and At-Tirmidhi graded it Sahih.<\/h3>\nWhy was it gradually prohibited? \u200b<\/strong><\/h2>\n