Library Ethics Greater Sins Chapter 15 Thirteenth Greater Sin: Drinking Liquor Liquor is Absolutely HarÄm
Liquor is Absolutely HarÄm
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Liquor is Absolutely HarÄm
It makes no difference if the quantity consumed is less or more; liquor is absolutely HarÄm; whether pure or mixed. Thus even if a person licks a single drop it is HarÄm whether he gets intoxicated or not. In the same way if liquor is consumed by mixing it with other things, it is still HarÄm.
Allama Hilli (r.a.) has quoted an authentic tradition from Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq (a.s.), that he said:
“If more of it intoxicates, then to consume even a bit of it is HarÄm.”
A person enquired from Imam (a.s.), “but I dilute it with water?”
Imam (a.s.) told him,
“A HarÄm thing does not become HalÄl by mixing it with water. Fear Allah, refrain from partaking of it.”
(Mustanad ush-Shia)
Umar Ibn Hanzala says that he enquired from Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq (a.s.):
“Does it matter if as much water is mixed in wine so that it is no more intoxicating?”
Imam (a.s.) replied:
“No! By Allah it is not. Even if a drop of wine falls into a well full of water it does not become HalÄl. Rather the whole well has to be emptied.”
(Furu’ al-KÄfi)
Ibn Wahab has narrated this tradition from Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq (a.s.):
“Every intoxicant is HarÄm. Something that intoxicates only when consumed in large quantities, is also not allowed to be taken even in a lesser quantity.”
The narrator says, “I asked, ‘Then if a HarÄm thing is mixed in a huge quantity of water, does it become permissible?’”
Imam (a.s.) flailed his arms twice, indicating emphatically that it does not.
(Furu al-KÄfi)
Liquor is harmful irrespective of the quantity consumed. Even if a drop of the poison enters the body it has harmful effects on it, whether apparent immediately or not. If you mix a few buckets of red dye in a pond of water, the whole pond water turns red. But on the other hand if you throw a glassful of ink in a pond of clear water it would not bring about any appreciable change in its appearance, yet, could you say that the ink has not affected the water at all? Certainly not! If the water is subjected to the process of distillation the glassful of ink could be recovered. If it enters the body it will cause harm.
A person who tastes liquor, one drop at a time, soon gets addicted to it till he needs to drink more and more of it. Consequently a stage is reached when he is unable to rid himself of this habit howsoever hard he may try. A stone is eroded when water drips upon it over a period of time. Similarly alcohol erodes the liver and other cells of the body. Grapes, raisins and dates, when unfermented have medicinal properties and are wholesome and beneficial to the body. But as soon as fermentation sets in these fruits and wine is produced they turn harmful and prohibited.
