The real motivation in the success of prohibition of Khamr (intoxicants) came from Islam as a religion and a way of life.  The Qur’anic Verses which deal directly with the problem of intoxication, as we have seen, include clear elements of “persuasion” and “incentive manipulation.”  However , the real moving force for this campaign had started many years before.  The prohibition of  Khamr did not take only three years to achieve as some modern scholars have asserted.  It had actually commenced thirteen years before when the rising sun of Islam sent its first blessed rays to illuminate the dark valley and mountains of Mecca.

            Instead of initially prohibiting alcohol intoxication and other pre-Islamic Arab customs and traditions, Islam first attacked the deep-rooted false beliefs and values upon which they were based.  Idolatry, triblalism and the values of the ancient Arab moarlity were the real source of ‘ignorance’ (Jahiliyyah) as the Holy Qur’an calls it.  These were the real sources of the evils of which gambling, adultery, and alcoholism were simply symptoms ; they were only fruits of the tree of  Jahiliyyah the main root of which was idolatry.

            That is why Islam spent the first thirteen years of its life devoting itself to establishing the new faith in its converts.  Faith in the One almighty Allah, in the Hereafter with its Paradise and Hell, in the Unseen Angels and in the Prophets (peace be upon them) and the revealed Holy Books.

            That was not an easy task.  When the ancient Arab fully accepted the new faith he would never be the same man again.  It was transformation from prostrating himself to the stone-carved god of his tribe, which was supposed to give him support against other Arab tribes and to justify all his immoral acts like robbing and looting others, killing his female children, gambling, intoxicating himself and fornicating freely.  Now he listened to the Holy Qur’an to converse him with his true Creator, to All-Knowing Mighty God:

       “We verily created a man and we know what his soul whispereth to him, and We are neaer to him than his jugular vein.”  (50:16)

            “And with Him are the keys of the invisible. None but He knoweth them. And He knoweth what is in the land and in the sea. Not a leaf falleth but He knoweth it, not a grain amid the darkness of the earth, naught of wet or dry but(it is noted) in a clear record.” (6:59)

            It is not the dead god of a tribe, nor even a god of all Arabs, but He is the God of all mankind, of the Heavens and the earth, of the seen and the unseen. No more narrow selfish tribalistic pride since Allah is the Merciful Compassionate Sustainer of all men.  The only norm for better and worse among people is belief in God and good deeds to mankind.  The Holy Qur’an says:

      “O mankind ! Lo! We have created you male and female, and have made you nations and tribes that ye may know one another.  Lo! The noblest of you, in the  sight of Allah, is the best in conduct.  Lo!  Allah is Knower, Aware.”   (49:13)

            The Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) supported these Qur’anic Verses by his famous Hadith in which he clearly stated that people are as equal as the “teeth of a comb.”  That there is no preference for an Arab over a non-Arab except through better conduct and fear of Allah.

            Compare this new attitude of international all-embracing humaneness portrayed by this Qur’anic Verse and the extreme, proud, fanatical tribalism  of pre-Islamic Arabia which the great poet repeated :

               “And when a newborn in our tribe,

                 reaches the age of weaning,

                  Tyrants prostrate themselves to him,

                   In submission and yielding.”

            The distance between the two stands was long and arduous,  but the Muslims were able to  bridge this gap through severe bodily and psychic sufferings at the hands of the tribal chiefs of Mecca.  Suhayb, the Roman ; Bilal, the Abyssinian ; and Salman, the Persian, who had been among those pioneers later became exalted leaders of the new state of Medina in spite of the fact that they were non-Arab.

            For thirteen years in Mecca the Holy Qur’an had been hammering on the realities of the  Hereafter and of Resurrection, so that the fear of punishment in Hell and the eternal rewards in Paradise  became vivid realities to the Muslims.  The Holy Qur’an says :

            “When the heaven is cleft asunder.  When the planets are dispersed.  When the seas are poured forth.  And the sculptures are overturned.  A soul will know what it hath sent before (it) and what left behind ?   (82:1-5)

            After the Muslim Arabs abandoned idolatry and the tribalism the tree of pre-Islamic morality lost its root and the social customs of alcoholism, gambling and adultery were now like weak branches in a dying tree.  Or better still, like neurotic symptoms which continued to have some form of functional autonomy long after their inner conflicts and complexes had been resolved.  A simple course of symptomatic behavioral therapy will remove them without any chances for future symptom substitution.  The task of prohibiting  khamr was also made easier because during these long years Islam had dealt with many of the more serious problems which brought insecurity to the Arab family.

            The murder of female children was not only prohibited but Arabs were even criticized by the Holy Qur’an for being ashamed of having female babies.  Some of the Qur’anic Verses vividly exemplified this criminal act in a quick sequence of the horrors of the Hereafter.  The Holy Qur’an says :

           “And when the wild beasts are herded together ; And when the seas rise ; And when souls are reunited ; And when the girl-child that was buried alive asked for what sin she was slain ?”     (81:5-9)

Again the Holy Qur’an says :

               “When if one of them receiveth tidings of the birth of a female, his face remainth darkened, and he is wrath inwardly.  He hideth himself from the folk because of the evil of that whereof he hath had tidings, (asking himself) : shall he keep it in contempt, or bury it beneath the dust.  Verily evil is their judgment.” (16:58,59)

            Many other evils concerning women and family structure and functions were also abolished e.g., women were given inheritance , they were allowed to choose their husbands and that matter of inheriting the wives of one’s deceased father was strictly prohibited.  The Holy  Qur’an says :

             “And marry not those women whom your fathers married, except what hath already happened (of that nature) in the past.  Lo! It was ever lewdness and abomination, and an evil way.” (4:22)

            In short, for those psychologists who look at the family as the main source of developing insecure future alcoholics, what Islam did in this field will be of great interest.  It is field greatly neglected by Muslim psychologists.

            Muslim children in Medina were given much greater love and permissiveness.  The Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) as the living example of Islam used to lead the Prayer while carrying his beloved baby grand-daughter.  His older grandson would ride on his blessed back while he was in prostration posture himself in congregational Prayer.  He would continue in this position until the boy finished his play, thus causing all those who prayed behind him to wonder about the long time he took in prostration.

            The new feelings of peace and security in the Muslim family and the acquired sense of pride that women had must have helped to ease the problems of the ‘drying’ alcoholics.

            Also children who grew in these families were less likely to develop the extreme emotional insecurity which was over compensated by the false tribal pride of  ancient Arabs.

            It is important to mention at this stage that what has been stated above with regard  to the efforts of Islam in laying the foundation of faith before attacking the evil social Arab custom has already been clearly exemplified by Hadrat ‘Aisha(Allah be pleased with her), the wife of Prophet Muhammad(peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) some time after his death.  Without the modern jargon of the social sciences Hadrat ‘Aisha(Allah be pleased with her) simply said that if the Holy Qur’an first told the Arabs not to drink khamr and to stop being adulterous they would have said ,”No. we will never comply” ; but the Holy Qur’an kept putting in their hearts the fear of God and of Hell until they were softened.  Then they were commanded to discontinue these acts and they compiled.”