were prohibited from coming to mosques while intoxicated: “O you who believe, go not near prayer when you are intoxicated until you know what you say” (4:43). Finally, intoxicating liquors were definitely forbidden: “O you who believe, intoxicants and games of chance and sacrificing to stones set up and (dividing by) arrows are only an uncleanness, the devil’s work; so shun it that you may succeed” (5:90). These three stages of the prohibition of wine are clearly mentioned in a ḥadīth.49 On the last of these occasions, a proclamation was made by command of the Holy Prophet that wine was prohibited, and people who heard the proclamation emptied their stores of wine immediately,50 so that wine flowed in the streets of Madīnah.51
As wine is prohibited on account of its intoxication, it is stated in ḥadīth that every intoxicant is prohibited (kullu muskir-in ḥarām-un) (Bu. 64:62). Herbs and drugs taken for their intoxicating effect and all other intoxicating things are therefore also forbidden; only a drink that does not intoxicate is allowed. The Holy Prophet was questioned about bit‘ — an intoxicating beverage made of honey (LL.) — and he replied, “Every drink that intoxicates is prohibited” (Bu. 74:3). It is further related that Abū Usaid invited the Holy Prophet to a wedding feast at which his wife, the bride herself, served food, and at this feast a beverage of dried dates, over which only one night had passed, was used and there was no objection,52 because it had not become intoxicant. Mālik ibn Anas was asked about fuqqā‘ — a beverage made of barley or a kind of beer (LL.) … and he said: “So long as it does not intoxicate there is no harm” (Bu. 74:3). Nabīdh, or fresh juice of grapes over which not more than a night or a day had passed, is also allowed. Thus certain people are spoken of as having come to the Holy Prophet and asked him what to do with their grapes, and he told them to dry them and then make use of their juice in the evening if they were wet in the morning, and in the morning if they were wet in the evening.53 But when a beverage becomes intoxicant, even a small quantity of it, that could not intoxicate, is not allowed: “That of which a large quantity intoxicates, even a small quantity of it is prohibited” (AD. 25:5). The question whether a very small quantity may be given as a medicine is quite different. It is true that there is a ḥadīth according to which one Ṭāriq ibn Suwaid, was ordered by the Holy Prophet not
49 Ah. II, p. 351.
50 Bu. 74:2; 46:21.
51 Ah. III, p. 217.
52 Bu. 74:8.
53 AD. 25:10.