哦，信道的人们！饮酒、赌博、拜像和求签的箭，都是恶魔所作的污秽之事。你们应当远离它们，以便你们成功。220

O believers! Intoxicants, gambling, idols, and divination arrows are all abominations from Satan’s handiwork. So shun them so you may be successful.220

伊斯兰教对饮酒所采取的直截了当、毫不含糊的禁止态度，或许是先知ﷺ的使命中最容易被人理解和欣赏的一面。一方面，这一禁令与他所处时代的异教徒、犹太教徒和基督徒的普遍习俗相悖，这说明他的传道并非是从周围环境中汲取教义的堆积。但除了具有革命性和原创性之外，它的表述方式也极为睿智。先知穆罕默德ﷺ告诉人们：“凡大量饮用会致醉的东西，少量饮用也是non-permitted的。”221

Islam’s straightforward, categorical rejection of alcohol consumption may be one of the easiest facets of the Prophet’s صلى الله عليه وسلم message to appreciate. On one hand, that fact that it was contrary to the prevailing norms at his time among pagans, Jews, and Christians argues against the notion that his ministry was an accumulation of teachings absorbed from his surrounding environment. But in addition to its being revolutionary and original, it was incredibly wise in its framing. The Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم informed people that “whatever will intoxicate in large amounts, then even small amounts of it are unlawful.”221

明智的人应当注意到，这一建议远比当今“理性饮酒”的劝导更为高明。那些劝导依赖的，恰恰是醉酒者本人的判断，而他们的判断力正是被酒精所削弱的。

Sensible people should notice how superior this advice is to current recommendations to “drink responsibly” which rely on the decision-making of those whose ability to make responsible decisions is impaired.

一些现代社会已经承认了这种失败的逻辑，并试图绕开它：要求“指定司机”完全戒酒，以便安全地将饮酒者送回家。为了说明这些措施的不足，请注意哈佛酒精项目（Harvard Alcohol Project）到1991年就已将“指定司机”这一概念常态化。

Some modern societies have acknowledged this failed logic and attempted to maneuver around it by requiring that a “designated driver” abstain from drinking altogether to safely transport the drinkers to their homes. To illustrate the inadequacy of these measures, realize that the Harvard Alcohol Project normalized the “designated driver” concept by 1991

使用了庞大的网络，涵盖政府倡导团体、好莱坞、职业体育联盟、大型企业，甚至酿酒和蒸馏酒企业自己准备的公益广告。尘埃落定后，人们发现这场运动瞄准的是错误的目标。三十年过去了，因酒精影响驾驶而引发的机动车事故仍未减少一半。2016年，美国有超过一万人死于酒后驾车事故，占所有交通死亡人数的28%。即使对成年人而言，非言语的同伴压力也是现实存在的，加之在与正在饮酒的人社交时，还要费心分辨谁会自愿保持清醒，这种一厢情愿的想法从来没有可能彻底解决这一问题。如果我们以先知ﷺ在这一问题上的指引为准，他教导说，仅仅通过对饮酒实行零容忍政策来禁止人们踏上“少量饮酒”的滑坡是不够的。

using massive networks that spanned government advocacy groups, Hollywood, professional sports leagues, major corporations, and even had public service announcements prepared by the brewing and distilling companies themselves. When the dust cleared, it turned out that this campaign was focused on the wrong target. Three decades later, a 50% decline in motor vehicle crashes caused by alcohol-impairment has still not been achieved.222 Over 10,000 people in the United States were killed in 2016 by alcohol-impaired driving crashes, 28% of all traffic deaths.223 With nonverbal peer-pressure being a reality even for adults, along with the bother of identifying who will voluntarily remain sober while socializing with those actively drinking, this wishful thinking never had the potential to fully combat the problem. If we turn to the guidance of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم on this issue, he taught that it was not enough to prohibit people from embarking on the slippery slope of “light drinking” through a zero-tolerance policy on alcohol consumption.

他ﷺ补充说，要使不饮酒的人免受酒的吸引力影响，唯一的办法是禁止他们坐在有酒传递的桌旁。224 但最重要的是，他ﷺ教导说，灵性与道德的净化才是戒除节制与改革的真正根基，人也唯有如此才能从这一恶习中解脱出来。他的妻子ʿĀ'ishah说：“《古兰经》最初降示的，不过是那些提到天堂与火狱的中等篇章（mufaṣṣal）。等到人们开始倾向伊斯兰之后，合法与非法的律例才被降示。如果最先降示的是‘不要饮酒’，他们就会说：‘我们绝不会放弃饮酒。’如果最先降示的是‘不要通奸’，他们也会说：‘我们绝不会放弃通奸。’”225

He صلى الله عليه وسلم added that insulating non-drinkers from its magnetic force is only possible through prohibiting them from sitting at a table where wine is circulated.224 But above all, he صلى الله عليه وسلم taught that spiritual and moral refinement were the true bedrock upon which temperance and reform are built, and a person is liberated from this vice. His wife, ‘Āishah , said, The first revelations of the Qur’an were none other than chapters from the mufaṣṣal (shorter chapters), which contain mention of Paradise and Hellfire. Then, once the people became inclined to Islam, the lawful and unlawful were revealed. If the first thing to be revealed was “Do not drink wine,” they would have said, “We will never give up wine.” And if “Do not fornicate” was revealed first, they would have said, “We will never give up fornication.”225

同样，戒酒者匿名协会（Alcoholics Anonymous）是一个享誉世界的康复项目，至今已惠及数百万人。由于信奉更高力量在帮助人们戒除成瘾方面行之有效，该项目将其列为计划的一部分。

Similarly, Alcoholics Anonymous, a world-renowned rehabilitation program with millions of beneficiaries to date, requires believing in a higher power as part of their program due to its efficacy in helping people recover from addiction.

除交通死亡之外,饮酒带来的健康风险范围很广,几乎涉及人体的每个系统和器官。酒精毒性最严重的表现是脑损伤和肝衰竭。226 孕期饮酒是另一种流行问题,因为酒精对发育中的胎儿毒性极大。胎儿酒精综合征仍是美国可预防的智力残疾的首要原因,此外还有多种其他临床表现。227 除了酒精的直接毒性,它所造成的损害所带来的不良后果也十分明显:饮酒与工作效率下降以及艾滋病毒传播增加、致命事故、暴力和虐待行为的增多之间存在已被证实的关联。228 安拉在《古兰经》中提及醉品引发的争斗,并警告世人:{撒旦只想通过醉品和赌博在你们之间挑起仇恨和怨恨,并使你们忘记安拉、停止拜功。你们还不戒除吗?}229

Aside from traffic deaths, the health risks associated with alcohol consumption are vast, involving virtually every system and organ in the human body. The most severe examples of its toxicity involve brain damage and liver failure.226 Consuming alcohol while pregnant is another epidemic, due to alcohol being so toxic to a developing fetus. Fetal alcohol syndrome remains the leading cause of preventable intellectual disability in the United States along with a variety of other clinical manifestations.227 In addition to alcohol’s direct toxicity, the detrimental consequences of the impairments it causes are found in the established correlation between alcohol consumption and reductions in workplace productivity, along with increases in HIV transmission, lethal accidents, violence, and abuse.228 Alluding to the aggressions triggered by intoxicants, Allah cautions humanity in the Qur’an, Satan only wants to stir between you animosity and hatred through intoxicants and gambling, and to avert you from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer. So will you not desist? 229

因此,美国疾病控制与预防中心估计仅在美国每年就有95,000人因过量饮酒而死亡,也就不足为奇了。230 《柳叶刀》近期发表了一项研究,评估了1990至2016年间195个国家与酒精相关的疾病负担。研究人员在试图确定既能将其有害影响降到最低、又能获得其微小益处的饮酒量时,得出结论:只有“零饮酒”才是无威胁的饮酒量。231 换言之,饮酒带来的危害之大,以至于任何饮酒量下,益处都不超过其危害。大量医学研究印证了《古兰经》中所载、先知穆罕默德ﷺ的永恒教诲:“他们问你(穆罕默德啊)关于酒和赌博的事。你说:‘两者中都有大罪,也有对人有益的地方;但它们的罪恶大于它们的益处。’”232

It is therefore no wonder that the Centers for Disease Control estimate that 95,000 deaths occur every year in the United States alone due to excessive alcohol consumption.230 The Lancet recently published a study evaluating the burden of disease linked to alcohol, spanning 195 countries from 1990-2016. In attempting to determine the amount of alcohol consumption that would minimize its harmful effects while still reaping its minor benefits, they concluded that “zero alcohol” was the only nonthreatening amount.231 In other words, the harm associated with alcohol consumption was so great that in no amount was the benefit greater than its harm. Countless medical studies reinforce the timeless message of the Prophet Muhammad ,صلى الله عليه وسلم as outlined in the Qur’an, “They ask you [O Muhammad] about wine and gambling. Say, ‘In them is great sin, and yet some benefit for people. But their sin is greater than their benefit.’”232

与今天一样,先知ﷺ的同时代人在伊斯兰教出现之前,常常夸耀饮酒会让他们无所畏惧,因而在战场上英勇,在施舍中慷慨。《古兰经》来驳斥这种狭隘的想法,把这些所谓的好处与它们无法分割的更大危害并列起来,比如不必要的暴力以及对重要财富的浪费。穆罕默德ﷺ的使命使伊斯兰教在饮酒问题上的独特坚定立场具有经典依据并且始终适用,不会因政治的变化或所谓的好处而被违背。或许这正是今天许多在饮酒中深受伤害的少数族群纷纷皈依伊斯兰教的原因之一。233

Much like today, the Prophet’s صلى الله عليه وسلم contemporaries would boast before Islam of how becoming drunk rendered them fearless, and consequently people of valor in battle and generosity in philanthropy. The Qur’an came to overturn this myopic thinking, by juxtaposing these advantages with the inevitable greater harms that cannot be separated from them—such as unnecessary violence and wasting of vital finances. Muhammad’s صلى الله عليه وسلم message made Islam’s unique firm stance on alcohol scriptural and ever-relevant, not to be contravened by fluctuating politics or supposed benefits. Perhaps this plays a role in why minority communities, who are often disproportionately harmed by alcohol consumption, are converting to Islam in droves today.233