A rejoinder to our Thursday 1 May publication "Role of alcohol in nation building" which appeared to advance reasons in favour of alcohol.
By Sheikh Alie Kallay
Mr. Editor, please permit me to respond to this article in the same way it came to us in your widely read newspaper so that our readers can have the choice in choosing their life styles for themselves.
Allah Says: “They ask you (O Muhammad) concerning alcoholic drink (intoxicants) and gambling, say: in them there are a great sins and some benefits for some people but the destructions they cause are greater than that of their benefits”. Qur’an: Ch 2, V. 219
In the first place we must thank Ezekiel Nabieu for his views on alcohol and its role in nation building and his observation that there are bars that go broke in the presence of the Holy Month Ramadan as a result of lack of customers. We also thank him for the income and employment the nation benefits from alcoholic businesses.
However, he fails to realise that alcohol damages the human resources of any country including Sierra Leone. So what benefit can we boast of if our children, our future leaders are addicts to alcohol and drugs! Which is better: little resources and good managers or huge resources without level-headed managers?
It is a well known fact that Muslims don’t drink alcohol. It is haraam, forbidden. They don’t eat foods with ethanol, they don’t wear perfumes containing alcoholic ingredients and they stay away from all forms of intoxicating substances. This abstinence is a command from Allah (God), the law maker for Muslims’ health and environment. But why else is alcohol haraam in Islam? Let’s take a look.
Alcohol in Islam
Linguistically, khamr (خمر) Arabic for “wine”, is alcohol derived from grapes. This is what is prohibited by specific texts of the Quran (see 5:90). Therefore alcohol is categorically unlawful (haraam) and considered impure (najis). Consuming any amount is unlawful, even if it doesn’t create any drunken effects, if forbidden.
The Prophet Muhammad of Islam said, “Intoxicants are from these two trees,” while pointing to grapevines and date-palms. Alcohol derived from dates or raisins is also prohibited, again regardless of the amount consumed, as explained by prominent Islamic Scholars.
At first, a general warning was given to forbid Muslims from attending prayers while in a drunken state (Quran, 4:43). Then a later verse was revealed to Prophet Muhammad which said that while specifically alcohol had some medicinal benefits, the negative effects of it outweighed the good (Quran, 2:219).
Finally, “intoxicants and gambling” were called “abominations of Satan’s handiwork,” which warned people with self-consciousness to not turn away from God and forget about prayer, and Muslims were ordered to abstain (Quran, 5:90-91).
The Prophet Muhammad also instructed his companions to avoid any intoxicating substances (paraphrased), “if it intoxicates in a large amount, it is forbidden even in a small amount.” For this reason, most observant Muslims avoid alcohol in any form, even small amounts that are sometimes used in cooking.
Why Muslims Don’t Drink Alcohol
Alcohol and prayer do not mix: Prayer (salat) is a fundamental part of the Muslim lifestyle, an obligatory call to God to perform five times a day. A ritual eco “wudhu” (woo-dhoo) is necessary before the prayer which involves a water saving ablution to spiritually connect to environment, health and creation. The presence of alcohol in the same room does not affect prayer, according to Islamic scholars, but anyone who drinks alcohol cannot pray for a month, unless they repent.
It’s addictive: Even when the early Muslims recognised alcohol for its medicinal uses, Prophet Muhammad likened the drink to a “disease”, saying there is no cure in things that God has forbidden. Like the first puff of a cigarette, it is up to individual will-power to continue or stop drinking.
Liquor clouds the intellect: Khamr also describes how alcohol consumption makes it difficult to differentiate between right and wrong. Muslim faith is founded on the intellect, rational thought and good judgement. Anything that can jeopardise this behaviour is forbidden, and another reason why Muslims don’t drink.
It gives the wrong message to children: Sitting in a restaurant where alcohol is served is not the same as drinking it. This is why Islamic law has the flexibility to say if someone needs to sit in such a restaurant for a work meeting or because no other diners are available, they can, but should not sit at a table where alcohol is served. Bars and environments where alcohol is served could lead to drinking, and in the presence of children it could teach them to explore drinking. Mature Muslim adults are role models and carry a message that you don’t have to drink to have a good time, to work or to socialise.
Classical and contemporary Islamic scholars have helped explain why an alcohol zone can be as bad as drinking itself,
“The difference between [prohibitions in environment] and [prohibitions related to the end goals] is that while both are forbidden, the former is considered lesser in weight because it is related to causes, whereas the latter is related to an actual forbidden act. Thus, sitting at the table, although not the same as drinking, could lead to it whereas drinking in itself is absolutely forbidden”, Dr. Abdullah bin Bayyah Says…
Alcohol makes one forget. Any intoxicating substance, whether it’s wine, beer, gin, whiskey or drug, affects a person’s faculties and behaviour. The result is the same, and the Quran outlines that it is the intoxication - which makes one forgetful of God and prayer - that is harmful.
Alcohol can lead to criminality.
Although a controversial statement, in Islam alcohol is viewed as the “key to every evil” (hadith), because of its close relation to creating or making criminal behaviour easier to commit. That isn’t an omission of the medicinal uses of alcohol, but to say that a prevention is better than a cure. Thus, the Quran explains, “(in alcohol) there is a great sin, and (some) benefits, but the sin outweighs its benefit)” (2:219).
Halal Wine?
Without side-sweeping the nutritional value to alcoholic beverages, we must accept that wine in particular is not completely “evil”. Wine contains coronary benefits and according to a 2003 study on Wine Pros, decreases the risk of peptic ulcers.
Hippocrates recommended specific wines to disinfect wounds, and even the great Islamic scholar Ibn Kathir noted wine’s force for better digestion.
But did you know halal wine exists too?
In the Quran is the promise of Paradise for people who conserve God’s laws on Earth and leave it as they found it, or better. This Paradise contains rivers of honey, milk and wine which does not intoxicate (Quran 47:15).
Some great entrepreneurs took this as inspiration, leading to the production of halal approved wines such as Halal Champ Wine, and Australia’s Patritti Wines of Dover Gardens, which was accredited by the Islamic Council in 2003 in the UK.
According to a more lenient school of thought in Islam, creams and deodorants containing alcohol are alright to use as it is invariably a synthetic alcohol and not wine (khamr). In Saudi Arabia though, even fuel containing ethanol is getting the haraam boot.
A contemporary fatwa (Islamic ruling) classified non-wine alcohol as permitted in external uses such as perfumes and soaps so long as it’s not used in vain or for intoxicating purposes. However, the main consensus is to religiously avoid it.
Buying and selling wine
For Muslims, when something is made haraam, it means that thing is harmful to one’s health and contribution to the community. That also means Muslims aren’t supposed to encourage others to consume in any haraam, irrespective of who they are.
Dealing with the alcohol trade comes under the haraam category. The Prophet Muhammad forbade people from all actions related to the wine industry, including pressing wine, drinking it, serving it, selling it or buying it. This severity is to stop the expansion of harm caused by alcohol.
And above all, drinking is a lifestyle choice for socialising and enjoying food, a lifestyle that Muslims simply do not indulge in.
Sheikh Alieu Kallay (aliup88@gmail.com) is a Sierra Leonean Islamic scholar and journalist.
(C) Politico 06/05/14
