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Alcohol
is considered by most medical authorities to be depressant of the central
nervous system.
But it is possible to “feel stimulated” from having had a
drink. This
is because alcohol can dull or depress the higher brain centres before
interfering with motor area functions.
The drinkers can be in control of his movements and speech, yet the
areas that regulate thinking and reasoning and feeling are kept from
functioning perfectly.
Thus a person who is drinking wine may be more active because he is
behaving in ways that are normally under control and not because he is
actually stimulated.
When a person
takes a drink of alcohol, it is not like a water going through a hose, nor
is it like taking in a food product.
There is a definite metabolic effect and yet there is no digestive
process involved.
The reason for this is that alcohol passes right through the walls
of the stomach and the small intestine.
It is readily absorbed into the bloodstream, which carries it
immediately to the brain and the central nervous system.
Alcohol affects the human body much more quickly than do ordinary
foods which must be broken down by enzymes and digested before they can
pass into the blood.
However, if a
person has just eaten, the alcohol that goes to the stomach combines with
the food and is absorbed into the bloodstream more slowly.
Because milk and meat consist largely of fat and protein, they are
particularly effective in impeding absorption.
Wine and beer
act more slowly than distilled liquor simply because of the smaller
proportion of alcohol in them and because they contain other substances
such as fruit pulp and grain which help to show absorption.
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Wine
is a famous liquid which is prepared through a process that ferments some
seeds and fruits and changes some sweet scenting herbs and vinegar into
intoxication i.e., alcohol by
means of some effective things which produce a particular substance that
is very essential in the process of fermentation.
Abu Huraira
(Allah be pleased with him) reported Allah’s Messenger (peace and
blessings of Allah be upon him) having said : Khamr
(wine) is prepared from the (fruit) of these two trees –date-palm and
vine. (Muslim)
Anas
(Allah be pleased with him) reported: Khamr
(wine) was prohibited when it was made unlawful, and we do not find
wine of grapes but little, and the common thing of our wine was fresh and
dry dates. (Bukhari)
Nu’man bin
Bashir (Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah
(peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said : Verily, there is wine
from maize and wine from barley, and wine from dry-dates and wine form dry
grapes, and wine from honey. (Abu Dawuud)
It
has been established now that the basic material in alcoholic fermentation
is the same (glucose) whichever raw material is used.
Grape juice contains ready glucose, but in the case of corn,
glucose has to be produced by various treatments, before alcoholic
fermentation can even start.
So Khamr covers all
alcoholic beverages, a view held by Shah Waliullah and almost all the
Imams.
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Wine
may be produced from the juices of vegetables, berries and fruits.
The end results vary a great deal in taste and colour.
However, the most common substance from which wine is made is
grapes. Much
depends on the weather, moisture, sun, length of growing season and, of
course, the kind of grapes.
Juice is extracted from the fruit and with the introduction of
yeast, chemical changes begin.
The yeast changes the sugar in the fruit to alcohol and the process
of fermentation starts.
Beer is a brew of cereals.
Wheat, rye, rice or corn is boiled and yeast is added.
Here, another substance called malt
is needed.
Malt is barley or other
grain that has been steeped in water, allowed to sprout and then dried and
powdered.
In wheat, corn and other cereal grains, the sugar is in the form of
starch. The
malt is needed to change this
starch to sugar.
After that, the yeast which changes sugar to alcohol can perform
its job of fermentation.
In making beer, the fermentation of the grain is interrupted.
This causes less sugar to be changed to alcohol.
As a result, beer contains less alcohol than wine.
The varieties of beer and ale are the result of brewing with
different amounts and kinds of cereals and water, plus differences in
processing (as well as the addition of a small bitter fruit, usually hops,
which acts as a preservative and flavors the beer).
Distillation of alcohol results in gin, whisky, rum and brandy.
For example, a fermented liquid is boiled.
This becomes steam or vapor.
The vapor is recaptured, then flavored by the liquid from which it
has been boiled.
A distilled beverage has a higher alcoholic content than the
fermented brew from which it is made.
Generally, these products are forty to fifty per cent alcohol.
Distilled beverages have different flavors and colors because of
the distinctive qualities of the basic ingredients.
Whisky is distilled from grain brews; brandy is made form grapes;
rum is derived from sugar and molasses.
Gin comes from grain alcohol and is flavored with juniper berries.
Alcohol has no known discoverer or inventor.
Records left by ancient civilization show that the substance has
been with us for some time.
Then, as now, it offered man escape from his problems and was,
therefore, associated with magic, ancestor worship, the supernatural and
even religious rituals.
Distilled beverages were unknown in the Western World until the
Middle Ages.
By way of the Arabs, some experts say, the process was finally
introduced to European.
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