It is within the context of legislation, permissibility and prohibition, as well as the moulding of the Muslim community in Madinah, purging it from all remaining traces of past tradition of the dark days, that a clear and decisive verdict is given on intoxicating drinks and gambling, coupled with practices of associating partners with God.
Believers, intoxicants, games of chance, idolatrous practices and divining arrows are abominations devised by Satan. Therefore, turn away from them so that you may be successful. Satan seeks only to stir up enmity and hatred among you by means of intoxicants and games of chance, and to turn you away from the remembrance of God and from prayer. Will you not, then, desist? (Verses 90-1)
Drinking, gambling, idols and divining arrows were important aspects of pre- Islamic Arabia. They were closely related in both practice and tradition. The Arabs used to drink to the point of extravagance. They considered that drinking afforded people distinction. They often mention drinking in their poetry as a practice to be proud of or to praise others with. In social gatherings, drinking was coupled with the slaughter of animals which were immediately cooked to provide food to those who took part in these drinking bouts, those who served wine and those who frequented such gatherings. The animals were slaughtered at the feet of idols which were sprayed with the blood of their sacrifice. In such social events, the act of divining arrows was practised in order to determine the sharing out of the sacrificial meat.
Everyone’s share was determined by his arrow, with the highest arrow giving the largest share, and the lowest giving no share whatsoever, even though it might have been the arrow of the person who provided the animal for slaughter. This gives us an idea of how traditions were intertwined with ignorant ideological concepts.
Islam did not address such traditions at the start, because they are based on mistaken beliefs. To try to reform them at the surface level before establishing the right foundation of faith was bound to be a wasted effort, and this a Divine system would not even consider. Islam begins its reform with the paramount question for every human being, namely, faith. It uproots the very basic ideological concepts of ignorance in order to put in place the Islamic concept, which is in complete harmony with human nature. It explains to people how grossly mistaken their concepts of God are and guides them to recognise their true Lord and Creator. Once they know Him, they begin to listen with great attention in order to find out what pleases and displeases their Lord. Prior to this they are not even ready to listen or obey an order or commandment. They are not prepared to abandon their ignorant practices no matter how often they are advised against them. The key to human nature is that of faith. Unless the right key is used, nothing of morality or social reform will take root in human nature. Thus, it remains closed, unenlightened, and unfathomable.
The Islamic method of reform did not start with correcting the deviations and abominations of the dark ages, or Jāhiliyyah. It addressed the question of faith, beginning with the declaration that there is no deity save God. It took around 13
years to establish this concept of God’s oneness, with all that it entails, in the hearts of the early Muslims. In this period, the only aim was its establishment, so that people could know their Lord and submit themselves to His authority. When faith was clearly established in their hearts and they recognised that they could have no choice other than what has been chosen for them by God, then the next phase of outlining their duties, including worship, began. This was combined with the process of eradicating the social, economic, moral and behavioural traces of ignorance. It began in effect at the moment when God’s order could be obeyed without hesitation because people realised that God could only order them to do what is good for them.
In other words, commandments were issued after submission had become clear, when every Muslim realised that he had no say other than the say of God. Shaikh Abu’l Ĥasan `Alī al-Nadwī describes this stage succinctly and clearly in his invaluable book Islam and the World, under the subtitle “Highest Pinnacle of Development”:
Once the Gordian knot of unbelief had been cut, it was easy to unfasten the other knots that bound them (meaning the early Muslims). Once the Prophet had opened their hearts to Islam, he did not have to struggle at each step to make them reject the Wrong and accept the Right. They had entered into the new faith heart and soul and submitted themselves without demur to what the Prophet decreed. They unhesitatingly confessed before the Prophet such crimes as were not known to anyone but themselves. If they committed any crime, they voluntarily submitted themselves for punishment. Many of them actually had wine cups in their hands when the Qur’ānic injunction against the use of intoxicants was revealed, but the Word of God came between them and the cups. They threw away the cups at once and broke their wine barrels so that the drains of Madinah literally overflowed with their detestable contents.6
Yet, the prohibition of intoxicants and games of chance did not come as a surprise.
Before this categorical prohibition, some steps were taken to loosen the hold of such social traditions which were closely intertwined with personal habits as well as with economic aspects. Indeed, this was the third or fourth step Islam took to solve the problem of intoxicant drinks.
The first step was no more than firing a shot in the right direction, when God (limitless is He in His Glory) says in Sūrah 16, The Bee, revealed in Makkah: “And from the fruit of date palms and vines you derive intoxicants as well as wholesome food.” (16:
67) This was the first indication to Muslims whereby intoxicants were placed in opposition to wholesome sustenance.
The second step addressed the Muslims’ religious conscience through legislative logic, with the verse revealed in Sūrah 2, The Cow: “They ask you about intoxicants and games of chance. Say: In both there is great evil although they have some benefits for people; but their evil far exceeds their benefit.” (2: 219) The import here is clear: since the evil of a particular practice is far greater than its benefit, then it is better to abandon it altogether. Hardly anything is totally devoid of benefit, but its permissibility or prohibition depends on how far its evil outweighs its benefit.
The third step broke the habit of drinking and put it on a collision course with attendance to obligatory prayer. Here we have the verse revealed in Sūrah 4, Women:
“Believers, do not attempt to pray when you are drunk, [but wait] until you know what you are saying.” (4: 43) Since Muslims offer five obligatory prayers every day, with a close time range between them, which is not sufficient to get drunk in and then regain sobriety, this instruction practically restricted the times available for drinking. This, in effect, abolished the habits of midmorning and mid-afternoon drinking, which were part of the traditions of pre-Islamic Arabia. Moreover, it militated against addiction, which is closely related to the amount of time available for drinking. In this way, it became practically impossible for a Muslim to attend to his prayers on time, and to drink at his usual times.
The fourth and final stage was this categorical prohibition which came after people had become fully ready to accept it. It needed only a clear order and the Muslims were sure to obey it without hesitation.