Intoxicants and Gambling

۞يَسۡ‍َٔلُونَكَ عَنِ ٱلۡخَمۡرِ وَٱلۡمَيۡسِرِۖ قُلۡ فِيهِمَآ إِثۡمٞ كَبِيرٞ وَمَنَٰفِعُ لِلنَّاسِ وَإِثۡمُهُمَآ أَكۡبَرُ مِن نَّفۡعِهِمَاۗ وَيَسۡ‍َٔلُونَكَ مَاذَا يُنفِقُونَۖ قُلِ ٱلۡعَفۡوَۗ كَذَٰلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ ٱللَّهُ لَكُمُ ٱلۡأٓيَٰتِ لَعَلَّكُمۡ تَتَفَكَّرُونَ ٢١٩

They ask you (O Muhammad, pbuh) concerning alcoholic drinks and gambling. Say: ‘In them is a great sin and (some) benefits for men, but the sin of them is greater than their benefit’…

Surah 2 Al-Baqarah Verse 219

• The provision of this verse has been abrogated by the Verse (V 5:90)
• Narrated Abu Hurayrah: There were three stages to prohibiting Khamr. When the Prophet (pbuh) migrated to Al-Madinah the people were consuming alcohol and gambling, so they asked the Prophet (pbuh) about these things, and V 2:219 was revealed. The people said “they were not prohibited for us. Allah only said ‘In them is a great sin and benefits for men’”. So, they went on drinking khamr until one day, one of the emigrants led his companions in the Maghrib prayer and mixed up the Ayah in his recitation. Thereafter Allah sent down a tougher statement in V 4:43 ‘O you who believe! Approach not the Salah when you are in a drunken state until you know (the meaning of) what you utter’. Then the people would drink before the time of the prayer so that they would attend the prayer while sober. A firmer Ayah was then revealed in V 5:90-91, so they said “We abstained! O Lord!”

يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓاْ إِنَّمَا ٱلۡخَمۡرُ وَٱلۡمَيۡسِرُ وَٱلۡأَنصَابُ وَٱلۡأَزۡلَٰمُ رِجۡسٞ مِّنۡ عَمَلِ ٱلشَّيۡطَٰنِ فَٱجۡتَنِبُوهُ لَعَلَّكُمۡ تُفۡلِحُونَ ٩٠ إِنَّمَا يُرِيدُ ٱلشَّيۡطَٰنُ أَن يُوقِعَ بَيۡنَكُمُ ٱلۡعَدَٰوَةَ وَٱلۡبَغۡضَآءَ فِي ٱلۡخَمۡرِ وَٱلۡمَيۡسِرِ وَيَصُدَّكُمۡ عَن ذِكۡرِ ٱللَّهِ وَعَنِ ٱلصَّلَوٰةِۖ فَهَلۡ أَنتُم مُّنتَهُونَ ٩١

O you who believe! Intoxicants, and gambling, and Al-Ansab and Al-Azlam are abominations of Shaitan’s handiwork. So, avoid that in order that you may be successful. Shaitan wants only to excite enmity and hatred between you with intoxicants and gambling, and hinder you from the remembrance of Allah and from As-Salat. So, will you not then abstain?

Surah 5 Al-Mai’dah Verse 90-91

• In this verse four things are categorically prohibited:

1. Khamr (Intoxicants)
2. Maysir (Gambling; Games of chance)
3. Ansab (places commemorated for the worship of anyone else besides Allah, and altars for either sacrifices or offerings in the name of others than Allah)
4. Azlam (polytheistic divinations by arrow shooting)

• Narrated Ibn Umar that the Prophet (pbuh) said: ‘Every Intoxicant is Khamr, and every intoxicant is unlawful. Whoever drinks Khamr and dies while addicted to it, without repenting from drinking it, will not drink it in the Hereafter’
• Narrated Ibn Umar that the Prophet (pbuh) said: ‘Ten matters related to Khamr were cursed. Khamr itself was cursed, whoever drinks it, its server, seller, buyer, brewer, who asks for it to be brewed, whoever carries it, whoever it is carried to, and whoever consumes its price’
• Some people enquired whether it was permitted to make vinegar out of such liquor. The Prophet (pbuh) replied in the negative and asked them to throw away it instead. Some people enquired if such liquor might be offered to the Jews as a gift, the Prophet (pbuh) told them not to do so and said: ‘He who has prohibited it has also required it not to be given away as gift’ Another person asked persistently whether or not an intoxicant can be used as a medicine, the Prophet (pbuh) replied that far from being a remedy to a malady it was in itself a malady. Other sought permission to consume intoxicating liquor on the plea that they lived in a very cold region and had to work very hard, and that the people of that region habitually drank intoxicants to combat exhaustion and cold. The Prophet (pbuh) inquired if the drink concerned did cause intoxication. On being told that it did, he said that they should abstain from it. They pointed out that the people of their region would not accept this, to which the Prophet (pbuh) said that they should fight them. According to another tradition the Prophet (pbuh) instructed not to eat at the table where intoxicating drinks were being taken.
• The Prophet (pbuh) also enunciated the following principle: ‘If anything causes intoxication when used in large quantity, even a small quantity of it is prohibited’

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