Friday, October 9, 2009

Alcohol In Islam: A Lie Exposed

Introduction

When we look at Islam, We find that liquors are banned and prohibited; even harsh punishment awaits those who drink. However, when you ponder on Islam and investigate it from its core, you will find the un-expected. We shall prove that the Quran doesn’t prohibit liquor and that Muhammad did drink liquor.

Refuting the Ban of Alcohol in the Quran

Let Us first examine the Quranic verses that are supposed to ban alcoholic drinks, and we shall refute them:

Quran 2:219 ''They ask you concerning alcoholic drinks and Games of Chance, Say: In them are harm and goods for men, but their harm exceeds their good effects.''

It only says that there is harm in alcoholic drinks, and if you drink too much, I agree that it will harm you, but it doesn’t prohibit it here.

Quran 4:43 ''Do not approach prayers while you are drunk''

It says not to pray while you are drunk, which is a good idea.

Quran 5:90 ''O ye who believe! Intoxicants and gambling, (dedication of) stones, and (divination by) arrows, are an abomination, - of Satan's handwork: so avoid it that you may prosper''

Notice, God says here to avoid alcohol so that you may prosper, He doesn’t say do not drink at all. The verses are only saying that alcohol has bad effects and good effects, but best is to avoid it.

Does the Quran speak good of alcohol?

Yes it does, and I will show you a verse concerning it. Let us read the verses in context:

16:66 ''And most surely there is a lesson for you in the cattle; we give you to drink of what is in their bellies -- from betwixt the feces and the blood -- pure milk, easy and agreeable to swallow for those who drink.”

Notice it talks of drinks here, keep in mind that the context of the verse is about drinks.

16:67 ''And of the fruits of the date-palms and the grapes, you obtain Alcoholic drinks and goods. Verily in that is a Sign for a people who use their understanding.''

Notice that the verse here tells us that God bestowed upon us grapes and dates so that we can take alcoholic drinks from them, thus God is encouraging us to make alcoholic drinks here. Also it says that from date palms and grapes, we make alcoholic drinks and goodly provision. In Arabic the sentences says:''Tatakhedoon menha sokran wa rezkan hasanan’’, in this context, goods also refers to alcoholic drinks.

Muhammad: Has he ever drunk alcohol?

I can provide tens of Hadiths proving Muhammad drank alcoholic drinks, but I will give only some examples.

Muslim-Drinks-3753

''We were with the Prophet of Allah, and He was thirsty, and a man said: O prophet of Allah, Do you want to drink wine? Prophet of Allah said: Yes. The Man went to get the wine. The Prophet of Allah said: Make it Intoxicated. And He (Muhamad) Drank.”

The Arabic word used is Nabeed which means wine, it can be free from intoxication, however in that hadith the prophet insisted that it must be intoxicated, isn’t that fascinating?

Muslim-Drinks-3721

''The Prophet of Allah used to pour alcoholic drinks in a Bowel of Stone''

Seems he used to make his special kind of alcoholic drinks.

There are many incidents, such as Aisha pours wine for the prophet of Allah in morning and at night (Muslim-Drinks-3745). Also Aisha brought wine to the Prophet from inside the Mosque (Muslim-AlHayd-451).

Muslim apologetics would argue that Nabeed isn’t always referring to an intoxicated drink; however, we have seen that in the first Hadith, Muhammad asked that it to be intoxicated. The last hadith I posted, the exact word is ''Khamra'' which means alcohol. Apologetics might say no it means a coverlet or veil, but the word they are referring to is ''Khimar'', and the word used in the Hadith is ''Khamra'', please ask any Arab what does ''Khamra'' mean, and you will see.

Angels are Drunk also in Islam

There is a story that Angels were asking a woman questions, and she wouldn’t answer them unless they got drunk and they drank and got drunk, and became confused and killed a child. (Musnad Ahmad- Musnad almukathareen-5902)

Even the angels of Allah get drunk, I mean who is Left?

Companions of Muhamad drank alcohol

Hamzah drank alcohol and Muhammad was scared of him when Hamzah was drunk because he becomes mad. Probably that is one of the reasons Muhammad discouraged drinking alcohol. (Bukhari-V,4-B,53-324)

Anas Bin Malek used to serve alcoholic drinks. (Muslim: 23.4884, 4886)

Mujahedeen drank alcohol in the Battle of Uhud. Sounds pretty interesting. (Bukhari-Volume 4, Book 52, Number 70)

Caliphs who drank Alcohol

We know that Al-Rashid and Al-Mamun drank alcohol and there are other Caliphs who are known for their addiction to alcohol, here is a list:

Yazid I (680-683): he was Muawiyah’s son. He drank daily and won the title Yazid al-Khumur, the Yazid of wines.

Abd al-Malik (685-705): he drank once a month; but drank so heavily that he had to use ant-vomiting medicine to pacify his drinking bout.

Al-Walid I (705-715): he drank every other day.

Hisham ((724-743): He drank every Friday after the divine service.

Al-Walid II (743-744): Yazid II’s son. He would swim habitually in a pool of wine of which he would gulp enough to lower the surface appreciably. He also shot the Qur’an to pieces with his bow and arrow.

Source: (History of the Arabs; Philip K. Hitti, ch. xxvi, p.337) (Foot note 5: Mishkah, vol. ii, pp.172-3; ibn Hanbal, Musnad (Cairo, 1313), vol.i, pp. 240, 287, 320; Bukhari, vol. vi, p.232)

Conclusion

We see that alcohol was drank by the Prophet, and encouraged to be made by the Quran. We see famous companions drinking and serving alcohol. We saw that Angels in Islam became drunk and that Mujahedeen were drinking alcohol in the Battle of Uhud. Yet we see no verse from the Quran banning alcohol completely. We do find banning of alcohols in Hadiths, but Hadiths are not more reliable then Quran, they came way after the Quran, Muslims probably banned it by forging hadiths and attributing them to Muhammad since they saw what their Caliphs have done when they were drunk. However, we see that Muhammad did drink and the Quran no where bans alcohol, on the contrary, it calls it good and encourages us to make it. Alcohol may be condemned by scholars of Islam today; of course they will reject the fact that their prophet drank alcohol because that will portray him as a drunkard. We don’t see what Muslims have to say about alcohol, we go to the core of Islam and that is the Quran and Muhammad. We thus see how Islam and alcohol can live in harmony. Peace Brethren.

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Appendix:

We are more likely to take bad things about Muhammad then good things from Hadith. The fact is that when Muslims have Hadiths about their prophet that may portray him in a bad way, we will agree that these ahadith are genuine because Muslims after all won’t make up things that may portray their prophet in a bad way. Agree? However, when you find Hadiths that portray Muhammad in a good way and totally contradict the earliest biographies of Muhammad, then surely these are fabrications. If you find a Hadith that portrays Muhammad as a bad person, then it is authentic since Muslims won’t create something bad about their Prophet. If you find Hadiths that portray Muhammad as a good person (which totally contradicts the earliest sirahs), then surely they may have made it up just to make their prophet look better.

So Hadiths that portray Muhammad as a drunkard, then these are true, since Muslims won’t lie about their Prophet. However, when they say He banned alcohol, then there are doubts that these Hadiths are authentic because they might want to make their prophet look good, and hide the true face of Muhammad, and that is a drunkard.


http://www.news.faithfreedom.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2158

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