With regards to alcohol. I understand that it is forbidden. Why was it not forbidden straight away with the advent of Islam, because if I am not mistaken.
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As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
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One of our brothers/sisters has asked
this question:
Salam Brother Burhan
,
With regards to alcohol. I understand that it is forbidden. Why was it not
forbidden straight away with the advent of Islam, because if I am not mistaken,
alcohol was not straight away forbidden in the initial days of Islam.
Yours truly,
May Allah guide and protect us and may he increase our faith and iman.
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Answer:
Why islam not forbid
alcohol immediately
In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His
help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide,
and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear
witness that there is none worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear
witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His
Messengers.
Your Question: Why was
it not forbidden straight away with the advent of Islam, because if I am not
mistaken, alcohol was not straight away forbidden in the initial days of Islam.
Such was the
spiritual depravation and the depths of ignorance prevalent in the idolatrous
Arab society at the advent of Islam, that had the Whole Quran been revealed all
at once at the very beginning, or had every guidance and command of Islam been
made known at the very outset…..not only would it become an unbearable burden
for those who chose to believe, but many a prospect believer would have taken a
mere look at the revolution the guidance of Islam expected from his life and
lifestyle and it is possible that he would be turned away from it.
Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chatper 25 Surah
Furqaan verses 32-33:
32 Those who reject faith say: "Why is not the Quran revealed to
him (the Prophet (saws)) all at once?"
Thus (is it revealed) that We may strengthen thy heart thereby, and
We have rehearsed it to thee in slow well-arranged stages gradually.
33 And no question do they bring to thee, but We reveal to thee the
Truth and the best explanation (thereof).
Thus in the Absolute and Perfect Wisdom of the Lord Most
High, the absolute majority of the Revelations of the Quran for the first
twelve years were dedicated solely to the introduction and strengthening of the
concepts of ‘emaan’ or faith:
When the above absolutely obligatory and revolutionary
tenets of ‘emaan’ or faith were thoroughly drilled and engrained in the society
of believers, only then did the majority of the ‘Shariah’ or the Divine Laws
which were to govern the life of a believer and the righteous society were
revealed.
Thus for the first twelve years when the believing society
was taking shape and being formed, although the concept of voluntary prayers
and fasting was made known and practiced by the believers, there was absolutely
no obligation upon the believers to pray the five obligatory prayers, or fast
the month of Ramadan, or pay the obligatory zakah, or perform the pilgrimage of
Hajj, etc.
It was precisely on the basis of the Perfect and Absolute
Wisdom of revealing the guidance in stages as and when the believing Ummah was
taking shape and being strengthened through faith, that the moral diseases of
the society too be gradually addressed.
Once the concept of ‘emaan’ and faith had made their
secure homes in the hearts of the believers, they themselves felt the evil
effects of intoxicants and gambling were having on society and they approached
the Messenger of Allah (saws) and enquired regarding their ‘huqm’ or
ruling…..thus the first guidance discouraging these two evils of gambling and
intoxicants were Revealed by the Lord in Surah Baqarah sometime during the
first two years after migration to Madinah, or almost 13-15 years after the
first Revelations of the Quran…..
Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 2 Surah
Baqarah verse 219:
219 They ask thee (O Prophet (saws)) concerning (the ruling of) intoxicants
and gambling. Say: "In them
is great sin and some profit for men; but the sin is greater than the
profit."
Then at the beginning of the fourth year after migration
or 17 years after the first Revelations, and almost four-five years after the
five obligatory prayers were made absolutely mandatory upon the believers….the
second guidance and command regarding the consumption of intoxicants was
revealed in Surah Nisaa, prohibiting the believers from approaching prayers if
they were intoxicated and could not understand what they were saying in their
prayers……
Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chatper 4 Surah
Nisaa verse 43:
43 O ye who believe! Approach not prayers with a mind befogged until ye
can understand all that ye say.
And finally at the end of the sixth year after migration
or almost 19 years after the first Revelations, the Lord Most Majestic not only
categorically prohibited the consumption of all types of ‘khamr’ or
intoxicants, but Commanded the believers to not even approach it or come close
to it!
Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 5 Surah
Maidah verses 90-91:
O you who have believed! ‘Khamr’ (all types of intoxicants), games of chance, idols,
and divining arrows are all abominable works of Shaitaan; therefore,
stay (far) away from these so that you may attain success. Indeed,
Shaitaan seeks to sow enmity and hatred among you by means of ‘khamr’
(intoxicants) and gambling, and to
prevent you from the Remembrance of Allah and from Salaah. Will you not, then,
abstain from these things?
Sunan of Abu-Dawood Hadith 3679 Narrated by Aisha
I heard the Messenger of Allah (saws)
say: “Every intoxicant is haraam; if a quantity of anything causes
intoxication, a handful of it is (also)
haraam.”
Al-Tirmidhi Hadith 2776 Narrated by Anas ibn Malik
Allah's Messenger (saws) invoked the curse of
Allah on ten people in connection with wine: the wine-presser, the one who has
it pressed, the one who drinks it, the one who conveys it, the one to whom it
is conveyed, the one who serves it, the one who sells it, the one who benefits
from the price paid for it, the one who buys it, and the one for whom it is
bought.
Sahih Muslim Hadith 4962 Narrated by Jabir ibn Abdullah
Allah's Messenger (saws) said: “Every intoxicant is haraam! Verily Allah, the Exalted and Majestic, made
a covenant to those who drank intoxicants to make them drink ‘Tinat al-Khabal’. The companions asked: “Allah's Messenger, what is Tinat al-Khabal?’ He (saws)
said: “It is the sweat of the
denizens of Hell, or the discharge of
the denizens of Hell.”
Al-Tirmidhi Hadith 3653 Narrated by Abdullah ibn Amr
The Prophet (saws) said, "An undutiful
son, a gambler, one who casts up what he has given, and one who is addicted to
wine will not enter
Thus brother, it was the process of gradual guidance that
was applied to the first community of believers, so that the worst spiritual
evils beginning with ‘shirk’ and ‘kufr’ were dealt with first and through a gradual
process and in stages each and every evil that effects one spiritually,
mentally, and physically were addressed and abolished over a period of 23
years.
Even today such gradual training of a mass society is used
by the authorities to attain their final goal…..a simple example being that of
the wearing of a seat belt while driving a car.
Fist the traffic authorities run a full and long media and awareness
campaign listing the benefits of its usage and the evil effects if one does not
use it…..and when the people are made sufficiently aware of its benefits,
finally a law is drafted which makes it mandatory for all who drive their cars
to wear the seat-belt for their own safety, and a penalty imposed on those who
break the law.
Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only
due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me
alone. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is
the Only Source of Strength.
Your brother and
well wisher in Islam,
Burhan
