The most precious gift of Allah to mankind is the intellect.  It is because of his reasoning power that man is called the best creation of God. 

Intellect has two very strong enemies : Desire and Anger.  These two rivals of intellect get reinforcement by alcoholic liquor.  When alcoholic liquor enters the human body, the first victim is the highest cerebral centers which control such factors as judgment, sense of responsibility and moral integrity.  When these higher factors are depressed, the lower instincts are released from captivity.  Moral and social inhibitions become a dead thing.  It is now proved that the intoxicated person becomes talkative, excited or even violent and aggressive.  On-lookers think that he is stimulated.  In fact it is not stimulation. What is often referred to as alcoholic stimulation is the first sign of alcoholic depression.  No amount of alcohol can stimulate intellectual functions.

Wine covers intellect and power of discerning right from wrong.  There is no act which a man cannot do when he loses his sense and wisdom.  This temporary covering over the intellectual region has got necessary repercussion on mind which can produce many diseases hitherto unknown to a drunkard.

Wine weakens the faculty of understanding and its overall effect on the whole nervous system mostly makes the drunkard a victim to insanity and degenerates him to a vindictive beast.  Sirajuddin ‘Umar b. Alwardi has explained this reality as under :

    “Give up wine if thou art brave,

    How can one indulge in an act of insanity,

   Who hath understanding.”

Wine also causes delirium-a disease that destroys the memory of a drunkard.  Wine provokes indignation because a drunkard is infuriated on petty grounds.  Wine induces the alcoholics to frequent treachery.  It excites some drunkards to sudden weeping, some to savagious contraction, some to unbounded liveliness and still some others to extreme humiliation and disgrace.  Whims and caprices also haunt the mind of the alcoholic and “ he loseth both the world and the Hereafter.  That is the loss manifest.”                                                         (22:11)  

There are a number of physical conditions associated with alcoholism.  The main ones are :

(1)               Alcohol Intoxication:  Mild to moderate intoxication can produce gastric irritation and vomiting.  It   can produce “behavioral changes,” such as depression or aggressiveness.  It can bring on alcoholic stupor.  Another well-known result of alcohol intoxication is the “hangover” or “mourning after”. It is  possible, through too much digestion of alcohol at one time, to induce a “coma”- a true emergency from which death may result.

(2)               Insomnia or Nightmares :  When the alcoholic can sleep, he often has terrible nightmares.  Often he cannot sleep and constantly he craves for a drink.

(3)               Convulsive Seizures : These “fits” sometimes occur in clusters and not always when the individual is drinking.  Alcohol, not epilepsy, is probably the greatest single cause of convulsions

(4)               Alcoholic Hallucination : In this instance the individual has moved, at least temporarily, out of the real world and into a compete fantasy world.  He may even hold conversations with an invisible partner.  Alcohol makes the brain so irritable that it sees, hears and feels things that are not there.

(5)               Delirium Tremens : Delirium tremens occur when an alcoholic is deprived of liquor.  They are accompanied by the deep confusion and disorientation.  He is unable to stop moving.  He paces around, tears at his bed linen, has terrifying hallucinations.  He is obsessed with terror.  In a small percentage of cases even death may result.  Delirium tremens are considered a medical emergency.  Immediate hospitalization is necessary.  The treatment consists of comprehensive physical evaluation by a doctor, constant nursing, adequate sedation, maintenance of fluid in the body and addition of vitamin supplements.

            Conditions such as these are not yet the worst of it for the alcoholic.  There are also chronic disorders due to prolonged usage of alcohol.  Some of the more common ones are:

1.                  Neurological Disorders :  These are associated with marked, permanent and irreversible disabilities of the nerves.  They leave a lasting imprint upon intellect, emotional balance, motor and sensory control.  Continued exposure to alcohol can lead to the accumulated destruction of brain cells.

2.                  Digestive Disorders : Nausea, diarrhoea and vomiting are merely the beginning of alcoholism.  Eventually severe ulcers and hemorrhaging may result.

3.                  Liver Ailments : An acute enlargement of the liver may appear within several days of heavy drinking.  Liver diseases-the most prominent of which Cirrhosis- are very dangerous.  Non-drinkers may also contract Cirrhosis.  However, the incidence is eight times higher among heavy drinkers.  The exact pathology is not known.  In some way alcohol, when coupled with dietary(vitamin) deficiencies, seems instrumental in causing the hardening and shrinking of the liver.  This prevents its normal functioning and may lead to death.

            Cirrhosis  is often a permanent and serious condition.  It first affects the individual in terms of weakness and fatigue.  In more advanced cases the liver is likely to become harder and smaller.  There are disturbance in clotting mechanisms.  Retained fluids sometimes cause serious problems.  Death may result from a number of causes once the liver is weakened.

4.                  Pancreatitis : This is usually dismissed as gastritis in its mildest form.  On the other hand, in alcoholica trouble with the pancreas may be an acute abdominal emergency.  In this severe form dangerous  hemorrhaging may occur.

5.                   Nutritional Deficiency and Cardiac Disease: Pellagra and various anemias may result from alcoholism.  So too many respiratory conditions and heart abnormalities.  There is some evidence that alcohol constricts the arteries of the heart.  Recent studies suggest that alcohol taken in great quantity, can injure the heart muscle.  By causing considerable change in the circulation of the blood, it overtaxes the heart and increases its workload.

6.                  Oral Cancer: Alcohol and smoking are fingered by some as being the chief culprits for bringing about the changes associated with oral cancer.   The American Dental Association lists the following oral changes that are symptomatic of cancer :

(a)    swelling of the palate or other area within the mouth;

(b)    persistent red spots, particularly on the floor of the mouth;

(c)     white patches on oral tissues ;

(d)    ulceration(s) on the lip or in the mouth ;

(e)      redness of the oral mucosa wit accompanying burning sensations.

7.                  Diabetes: though alcohol does not appear to cause ot contribute to the advent of diabetes, it may aggravate the condition of the diabetic by increasing the sugar count in the blood to a dangerous degree ot by lowering the sugar level of the blood dangerously, or by preventing sugar from the liver to enter the blood when needed to maintain proper sugar levels.  This is likely to happen when drinking “on-an-empty-stomach “ as when before-dinner cocktails are taken.

These diseases and their complications often result in disability and death.  The sort of life many alcoholics who persist in drinking are forced to lead is often a “fate worse than death.”  It is a life devoid of meaningful adult relationship, with no real happiness or opportunity for gratification.

Drinking wine weakens the coming generation; the child of an alcoholic os often weak and the descendants of the drunkard’s son are even weaker, physically and intellectually.  In this way weakness is transmitted to generation after generation till the drunkard’s posterity is extinct, specially, when the descendants follow the example of their forefathers.

            Drinking wine also causes euphorbia.  Some german doctors say that the texture of a young drunkard of forty years’ is like the texture of the body of a seventy years’ old man who does not drink wine.

            Wine consumption causes frequent abortions, increases the ratio of death of children of those mothers who are addicted to wine.  The reports of the U. N. O. bear evidence to the fact that people addicted to wine are short-aged than other people.  Dr. Charles Richet says that the alcoholics have left no room in the hospitals and lunatic asylum in France.  The assertion of a European doctor also reinforces this statement.  He says, ”Lock up half of the wine-shops and I guarantee you against half of the hospitals.”  

It is also a veritable evil from economic point of view, as it forms a chief source of the drainage of money from the coffers of a drunkard.  The Holy Qur’an deprecates this unnecessary drainage of money by saying:

        “Verily those who spend extravagantly are the brothers of the devils.”                                                                                        (17:27)

            Drinking wine destroys wealth and dilapidates property: especially, in these days when wine is of numerous kinds according to the degree of its intoxication and when its price is soaring high.  The merchants of wine are reduced to adopt illegal and unfair means to promote drinking among people.  Some people simultaneously cary on the business of fornication, immodesty and corruption and other ways of luxuriant living in order to attract alcoholics to wine just as some people introduce gambling of various kinds along with drinking.  A man enters a casino with thousands of pounds in his pocket but comes out of it penniless with the loss of wit and health.

            We seek refuge in Allah against the covetous people and their devilish mischiefs.  “Such are they who have lost their souls and that which they used to invent hath failed them.”   (11:21)  

1.                  The drunkards are prone to divulge secrets a very dangerous feature associated with drinking; particularly when alcoholics have intimate contacts with the Government and Politicians of the countries of Chiefs of the armed forces, the Police or Defence Departments.  The foreign agents always depend upon wine to ensure the success of their important missions for which they are deputed.

2.                  The alcoholic becomes a slave of wine because he can hardly give it up.  Wine has penetrating effects on all human nerves which off and on urge man to drink wine and thus he indulges in lavish drinking.  But all this does not serve as a warning to him with the ultimate result that he is condemned to obscurity and languidness.  When an alcoholic recovers his senses, he finds himself helpless to leave the habit of drinking wine.  His inclination to drinking becomes stronger and therefore, he is unable to get rid of it.

3.                  Drinking wine extinguishes noble passions of mercy, sympathy and tenderness.  We should seek refuge in Allah against the mischiefs of the covetous and the misled.  “Lo! That is the loss manifest.” (22:11)  

           Factions, quarrels and disputes of various types merge out on account of wine among the alcoholics themselves on the one hand and among the alcoholics and the other people on the other hand, simply because an alcoholic falls into a fit of passion.  Allah, the Exalted says :

“Only would Satan sow hatred and strife among you, by wine, and games of chance." (5:91)

1.         Drinking wine causes lowliness and disgrace in the sight of people.  The alcoholic becomes a laughing stock due to his funny talks, actions and behavior.  People scoff at him and children sport with him as he behaves like an idiot.  We find a number of strange actions and parables about the alcoholics that are sufficient for every noble, wise and manly person to abstain from drinking wine.

2.         The drunkard ventures to commit the most heinous offences of murder and fornication, disgraces people and defies and defies the law and canons of society.

3.         Drinking wine is extremely dangerous for the passengers of ships and aeroplanes, the drivers of trains and buses and for the pilots of aero planes.

The statistics of accidents bear an ample testimony to the fact that more than 30 per cent accidents are the result of drinking wine and on this account wine has been characterized as a fountain-head of evils(umm-ul-khaba’ith), an embodiment of sins(majma ‘il-atham), a door to mischiefs ( miftah-ush-sharr), culmination of all lewdness and the most abominable act of all major sins.

            We seek refuge in Allah against the mischiefs of our soul and against our evil deeds.  

1.           Wine is the mother of al sins.  There is no sin which an alcoholic cannot commit when he loses his intellect.  An alcoholic loses his power of control and self-restraint and lets loose the god of cupid to satisfy his sexual lust.  This is extremely harmful for the elevation of soul to spiritual heights.

2.         Drinking wine extinguishes the glow of faith.  This point is elaborated at length in a tradition of the Holy Prophet(peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) that embodies the maxim:

 “And a person, at the time of drinking wine is not a believer.”                                                                             (Bhukari)     

            This tradition deals with a bold fact that a  person who relishes the odour  of faith can never think of drinking wine.  In other words a person who drinks wine is devoid even an iota of faith at the time of drinking.

            According to another tradition transmitted by Hakim, a renowned scholar of traditions, on the authority of Abu Huraira(Allah be pleased with him), the Holy Prophet(peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: ”Whosoever commits fornication or drinks wine, Allah deprives him of Faith just as a man takes off his shirt from over his head.”

3.                  It keeps a man away from the remembrance of Allah, which is the object of man’s creation in this world.  The drunkards cannot even say their prayer correctly, especially the Salat(Prayer) which is the fundamental pillar of Islam.  The Holy Qur’an says:

          “And (wine) turn you aside from the remembrance of Allah, and from Prayer; Will you not, therefore, abstain from them ?”        (5:91)

            When this Verse was recited to Hadrat ‘Umar b. al-Khatab (Allah be pleased with him), the Second Caliph of Islam, he said, “We have abstained; we have abstained.”

            Nothing is more detrimental and deceitful for a Muslim than an act which turns him aside from remembrance of Allah and observance of His Commands and disturbs his communion with his Creator.  An addict of intoxicants spoils his health, ruins his wealth and property, distracts his soul from the remembrance of Allah and Prayer and becomes loathsome in the eyes of public masses.

4.         There is no denying the fact that evil effects of wine are not confined to human body.  Drinking affects the morals of man as well as the effect is most pernicious.  It no less contributes to the incitement of enmity and hatred among the fellow beings which are bad both from temporal and spiritual points of view.

We seek refuge in Allah against wine and its sister evils and says :

            Say unto him who drinketh wine inadvertently :

            Thou liveth due to wine an abominable life ;

            The value of man lies in his wit ;

            Why, then, O’ brother of ignorance,

            Thou hath sold that for a lowly thing?

            O’ resolute broher, give it up immediately ;

            It is an embodiment of all evil habits ;

            It is a door to all evils and harms,

            Lock up the door, live not in trouble.

An Anti-alcohol Organization was founded in America in 1874 A. D. after an attack of alcoholism on the Middle West.  This organization has its branches in some Arab countries a well and it disseminates its teachings against drinking and wine trading.  In some Islamic States like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Arab Republic of Lybia wine is totally prohibited.  Other Islamic States should also follow suit and ban wine without further loss of time.  What are they waiting for in declaring wine unlawful?

“Is not the time ripe for the hearts of those who believe to submit to Allah’s reminder and to the truth which is revealed, that they become not as those who received the Scripture of old but the term was prolonged for them and so their hearts were hardened, and many of them are evil-livers.” (57:16)

Again Holy Qur’an says :

             “And in truth We have made the Qur’an easy to remember ; but is there any that remembereth.” (54:17)

            It is obligatory on all Islamic countries to declare wine and promulgate its prohibition in the cities to enforce the Divine limits (hudud) for “whosoever transgresseth Allah’s limits, such are wrong-doers.” (2:229)  

There are some benefits of wine but they are quite insignificant and negligible as compared with the tremendous harms, grievous afflictions and dangerous calamities that wine entails.  Some of these paltry benefits are as under:

1.                  People deal in wine because it is a great source of wealth in some countries.

2.         It is contended that wine provides a cure for some diseases but wine is just like various poisons and dangerous vegetables having moderate propensities.  This contention is altogether wrong.  The medical science has proved that wine is of no avail in curing diseases and theory of medical treatment by wine is totally incorrect.  Contrary to it, everybody who probes into the books on medicines will be astonished to note that wine plays a major part to cause different diseases.

3.         Wine is supposed to provide consolation to a meloncholy person against the aftermath of an action that multiplies grief and sorrow.

4.         Wine causes excessive discharge of urine.  Thus the excessiveness of wine is sometimes attributable to the fluidity of alcohol.  Even the limpid water, when taken in excessive quantity, also excites discharge of urine.  This is not useful because it damages other organs of human body.  Further, diuretics are found as long as man suffers from some disease of the urinary organs.  Therefore diuretics keep security and do not entail fatal harms which alcohol contains.

5.         Wine is an impetus to valor and arrogance which are considered  as great benefits of wine by the Arabs and bedouins.  In this modern age it is held very dangerous as the enthusiasm excited by wine sows enmity and hatred among the drunkards.  This enthusiasm is no longer required in the modern warfare because was has become a very intricate technique these days and warrants brisk wit and sharp insight of which the alcoholics are devoid of.  A miser becomes, in a state of intoxication, generous and a stingy becomes a spendthrift.  This behaviour of an  alcoholic proved beneficial in the past when an alcoholic, under intoxication, would spend his money among his family.  But in these days this behaviour of a drunkard is full of dangers because he spends his money among people outside his family, rather he promotes wide sale and circulation of wine among his shameless companions free of charge.  Such are the insignificant and negligible benefits of wine

We        seek refuge in Allah against wine and its sister evils and against the worship of evil promptings and the Satan.