Bottom Of The Bottle

Alcohol. This is an example of how a person can be a slave to other than Allah. What was the relationship between the Arab man before Islam and Alcohol? If you look into their poetry, and their addiction and obsession with alcohol, you will find it was near enough a master-slave relationship. Whatever the alcohol wants from you, they would do it. Whenever the urge to drink would come, they would respond to it. The idea of alcohol formed their ambitions in life. It formed their outlook, it changed their vision.... it changed everything! Whatever alcohol wanted from them, they would respond. They virtually became alcoholics. People who are addicted to it. However, Islam has come and prohibited alcohol. Why? To ensure that your Tawheed is preserved. To ensure that your slavery is to Allah and Allah alone. See the prohibition of alcohol is not simply because it intoxicates the mind, it gives you a headache, it makes you sick, it makes you fornicate with family and what not. There are some reasons. Right? But if that was the only reason why alcohol was prohibited, then our Shariah would have said to us' it's okay to drink alcohol, just maybe a glass full, but don't drink a bottle, don't drink to a level where you will become intoxicated. Correct? But we know that in our deen, drinking a drop of alcohol and a bottle is the same. Therefore we understand that the wisdom behind the prohibition of alcohol is something other than just intoxication. It is fundamentally to preserve your Tawheed, the oneness of your worship to Allah (swt), so that you don't become enslaved to it. That is why the Messenger (sal) would say, as is narrated by Ibn Abbas in an authentic chain of narration: 'Whoever dies as an alcoholic' he said, 'will meet Almighty Allah as if he had worshipped an idol.' Do you see the link between alcohol and worshipping an idol? What is the link? The link is that master-slave relationship. Therefore the cornerstone of why alcohol was forbidden was to preserve your Tawheed. That you adore and you are enslaved to only Allah Almighty but alcohol can change that. So it was forbidden. 

I now take you to the Hadith in Sahih Al Bukhari where the Prophet (SAW) says on the authority of the companion Abi Malik Al Ashari, listen...

There will come a time where a group of Muslims from my Ummah will deem alcohol, and fornication, and musical instruments and silk as permissible. Doesn't this Hadith increase us in our love of the Prophet (saw), and our certainty in his prophet-hood, And Nubuwwah. Look at how he singles out alcohol, and music, and fornication because their manipulative properties are incredible. These are the tools of Shaythaan that he uses to move people away from the slavery of Allah to the slavery of man and to the slavery of his desires.

By Ustadh Ali Hammuda