METHODOLOGY FOR STUDY OF THE QUR'AN
by Sheikh Imran Nazar Hosein
CHAPTER SEVEN
System of meaning in the Qur’ān
on the subject of consumption of
intoxicants and curing addiction to alcohol
“[Here is a description] of paradise which the God-conscious are promised [a paradise] wherein there are rivers of water which time does not corrupt, and rivers of milk the taste whereof never alters, and rivers of wine delightful to those who drink it …”
(Qur’ān, Muhammad (s), 47:15)
As we search for perfect harmony in the verses of the Qur’ān which deal with this subject, we eventually realize that there is no cancellation or abrogation of any of the verses. It was because of a lack of proper methodology that some scholars of Islam were led to the false conclusion that a later verse on this subject cancelled an earlier verse. May Allah forgive such scholars when, on Judgment Day, they have to answer for having declared a verse of the blessed Qur’ān to have been cancelled or abrogated. Only Nabī Muhammad (s) could possibly have had the authority to make such a declaration, and he never did so!
When we adopt the methodology of studying this subject in the Qur’ān to locate that system of meaning which binds or integrates all the Qur’anic data as a harmonious and meaningful whole, we realize that the Qur’ān has dealt with the subject in a manner designed to achieve two objectives.
The first divine objective was to dramatically create a community of people, absolutely unique in human history, who would abstain totally from consumption of intoxicating drinks even while they understood and recognized that wine could be enjoyed innocently provided it did not intoxicate, and even while they lived with the promise of such wine in paradise. This community could then play a magnificent role as a model community in assisting the rest of mankind to respond to the many dangers that attend the consumption of alcohol. This would be particularly important in Ākhir al-Zamān, or the End-time, when the consumption of alcohol would proliferate to such an extent as to inundate the world.
The second divine objective, which seems not to have been recognized by those who hastened to declare a verse of the Qur’ān on the subject to have been cancelled or abrogated by subsequent revelation (i.e., Mansūkh), was to deliver a divinely-ordained method for curing the alcohol addict so that this unique community would be able to play a strategically important role in time to come in delivering the addict from addiction to wine and to gambling. This represented, and still represents, a manifestation of Divine wisdom that is truly dazzling to behold.
The verses of the Qur’ān delivered a stage-by-stage method through which the first divine objective was achieved in a spectacular manner. Previous revelations had prepared the way for the final revelation which prohibited the consumption of Khamr (i.e., alcoholic drinks). When that final revelation came down (Qur’ān, alMāidah, 5:90-91), we learn from the historical record that wine flowed down the streets of the city of Madīna. This was perhaps, the first time in recorded human history that an entire community of people who were habitual in the consumption of intoxicating beverages, voluntarily discarded all their stocks by pouring them down the drains, and then permanently embraced total abstention from intoxicating beverages.
Why did Allah Most High bring about this dramatic transformation, and what was the strategy employed by the divine wisdom with which He succeeded in this total transformation of the society?
The student of the Qur’ān who probes the revelations to locate the system of meaning of this subject, would have to ask the pertinent question: How do we explain that even after a Muslim community comprised of companions of the blessed Prophet had received all previous revelations on the subject, they still had such ample stocks of wine in their home when the final revelation was received, that wine flowed down the streets of their city? How do we explain the historical fact that even after all previous revelations had come down, there were eminent companions of the Prophet (s) who were drinking wine when that final revelation came down? Was it because they understood the divine revelations on the subject to have been directed to addicts, rather than to the community as a whole?
Imam Ahmad recorded that Anas said: “I once was giving an alcoholic beverage to Abu Ubaydah bin al-Jarrah, Ubay ibn Ka’b, Suhayl bin Baydaa and several of their friends meeting at Abu Talhah’s house. When they were almost intoxicated, some Muslims came and said, ‘Did you not know that Khamr has been prohibited?’ They said, ‘We’ll wait and ask.’ They then said, ‘O Anas! Spill the remaining alcohol out of your container.’ By Allah! They never drank it again, and their Khamr at that time was made from unripe and normal dates.”
This is also recorded in the two Sahihs (i.e. Bukhārī and Muslim)
With the dramatic creation of a unique community of people who abstained totally from the consumption of alcoholic beverages, the stage was set for the world of Islam to play a strategic role in history as the haven for cure of alcohol addicts. The stage was set for hearts of very large numbers of people in affected parts of the world to eventually beat in gratitude to the world of Islam and perhaps, to also recognize Truth in the Qur’ān.
This book points out that the moment in history for Islam to play such a role, has now arrived!
In order, however, for Muslims to function as a haven for the cure of alcohol addicts, Muslims have to understand the second divine objective of the Qur’anic system of meaning which delivered a method to cure the addict. That method delivered a stage-by-stage cure.
Before beginning the process of dramatic transformation of the Muslim society in respect of the consumption of wine, the Qur’ān first appealed to them to think. The same fruit trees which produced intoxicating beverages such as wine, also produced wholesome food (Qur’ān, al-Nahl, 16:67). People were invited to think and to realize that both wine and food had thus been provided by Allah Most High, and mankind should ponder and reflect over the divine wisdom that was now being manifested in the revelations of the Qur’ān on this subject.
Not only had Allah Most High created the fruit trees from whose fruits wine was pressed, but He had very clearly described the life of heaven as one in which the believers would enjoy Khamr (i.e., wine) innocently, i.e., without the dangerously harmful effects of intoxication and of addiction. There was powerful imagery in the description of that heavenly life with its innocent enjoyment of wine. It was meant to compensate for the coming loss of the same innocent enjoyment of wine in this world:
“[Here is a description] of paradise which the God-conscious are promised [a paradise] wherein there are rivers of water which time does not corrupt, and rivers of milk the taste whereof never alters, and rivers of wine delightful to those who drink it, and rivers of honey of all impurity cleansed, and the enjoyment of all the fruits [of their good deeds] and of forgiveness from their Lord-God: can this [parable of paradise] be likened unto [the parable of the recompense of] such as are to abide in the fire and be given waters of burning despair to drink, so that it will tear their bowels asunder?”
(Qur’ān, Muhammad (s), 47:15)
“They will be given a drink of pure wine whereon the seal [of Allah] will have been set.”
“pouring forth with a fragrance of musk. To that [wine of paradise], then, let all such aspire as [are willing to] aspire to things of high account.”
(Qur’ān, al-Mutaffifīn, 83:25-26)
“Not so, however, Allah’s true servants; [in the hereafter,] theirs shall be a sustenance which they will recognize; as the fruits [of their life on earth]; and honored shall they be; in gardens of bliss: facing one another [in love] upon thrones of happiness; A cup will be passed round among them [with a drink] from unsullied springs: clear, delightful to those who drink it; no headiness will be in it, and they will not get intoxicated thereon.”
(Qur’ān, al-Saffāt, 37:40-47
The important lesson was taught that heaven was a place where believers can enjoy wine innocently without the grave dangers that attend intoxication, and therefore without any possibility of ever becoming helplessly intoxicated addicts.
A time would come when alcohol would become one of the most dangerous weapons with which Shaitān (i.e., Satan) would attack mankind, and the Qur’ān was about to respond to that coming danger.
The Qur’ān recognized a similarity between intoxicants and gambling (Qur’ān, al-Baqarah, 2:219). Both are addictive! In the same way that healthy food was contrasted to harmful addiction to alcohol, so too, honest livelihood through sweat and labor, was contrasted to the lack of honesty and integrity inherent in gambling. In creating a community that would abstain totally from all forms of gambling (including lottery), the Divine wisdom again dazzled with splendor at the role that this community was destined to play in history in curing addition to gambling as well.
The Qur’ān recognized that there was some benefit in both intoxicants and gambling, but that the harm thereof was greater than the benefit. Those who received this divine warning were now rationally challenged to enquire into both the individual and collective benefits and harm that accrue to the individual and the society from intoxicants and from gambling. What is the impact of alcohol on the digestive system? – Circulatory system? – Nervous system? What are the psychological and moral effects of alcohol on the individual? What are the sociological effects of alcohol on society and, in particular, the family? What is the economic cost of alcohol in respect of health services, economic activity, accidents etc.?
Nabī Muhammad (s) spoke prophetically to the addict when he declared of the dangers of alcohol (when it intoxicates), that it is the key to all evil (hence it is like playing with fire):
“Do not drink wine for it is the key to all evils.”
(Sunan, Ibn Mājah)
Any rational enquiry into the harmful effects of the consumption of alcohol was certain to confirm the Qur’anic position that the ‘harm’ is greater than the ‘benefit’.
As a consequence of this first stage of the process, not only would the society as a whole have a better understanding of the subject, but there would be some addicts who would abstain from intoxicants on the basis of their understanding of the danger it posed either to themselves personally, or to the society; and such understanding would be reinforced when they ponder over the similarity between alcohol and gambling, both being addictive and both capable of inflicting great personal and collective harm. Thus the strategically important result of first stage of the Qur’anic method was the creation of a group of addicts who now refrained from the consumption of alcohol on the basis of rational conviction. They constituted a model of common sense and good sense which the other addicts could observe and emulate. The first stage of the process thus concluded in a manner that witnessed an appeal, both theoretical and concrete, to the rationality and common sense with which every alcoholic, as a human being, was endowed by his Creator.
Clearly, if the remaining addicts were ever to be weaned away from alcohol and gambling, it would not suffice to appeal to their rational consciousness. A different stage in the process was required if such addicts were to be cured of addiction to alcohol. While the first stage of Qur’anic method was directed to the entire society, including the addicts, and was based on an appeal to rationality, the second stage was directed to only those addicted to alcohol and witnessed a multidimensional embrace on the addict’s inner being – his emotional personality and its attachment to a world that was sacred – employing psychology, sociology and spirituality.
Contrary to both popular opinion as well as the opinion of many scholars of Islam through the ages, this stage of the Qur’anic revelation on the subject remains valid and can be eternally applied, i.e., until the end of time. The mistake which was made was the assumption that this stage of revelation of the Qur’ān was applicable to the entire society.
The second stage in the Qur’anic revelation on the subject was delayed until such time when the House of Allah (Masjid) was built in Madīna and Salāt (or prayer) was established as an institution in the individual and collective lives of the believers. Their hearts were now attached to Salāt (prayer) at home as well as in the Masjid. Indeed Salāt and the Masjid had become the most powerful concrete symbols in their daily life of the entire world of the sacred.
The second stage of the Qur’anic revelation (Qur’ān, al Nisā, 4:43) prohibited those who were intoxicated from performing Salāt. Such people were therefore also prohibited from visiting the Masjid for the purpose of performing Salāt.
This prohibition was related to the world of the sacred, and the sacred was always something that impacted with tremendous power on the emotions as well as the intellect. A mother, for example, is always recognized as sacred; and so there is profound emotional pain when one is barred from approaching his or her mother. This can take the form of a mother turning a wayward son out of her home. So too would there be tremendous pain in the heart of a believer when he is prohibited from standing before Allah, His Lord, to worship Him in Salāt, or from entering His holy house, the Masjid, for the purpose of performing Salāt. The drunks who were addicted to alcohol, and could not easily give it up, now began to hate alcohol since it caused them such tremendous pain. This was the stage of psychological demonization and it could not be pursued if the individual did not possess some consciousness of a world that is truly sacred, – and forever sacred. Only religion has a conception of the sacred. The secular west has lost consciousness of the world of the sacred.
The beauty in the psychology of the Qur’anic method, perceptible only to those who pursue the Islamic spiritual quest (al-Ihsān or Tasawwuf), was the magnificent manner in which it embraced both the rational and the spiritual consciousness in human nature and made profound use of both of them in delivering a profound emotional shock capable of breaking the addiction to alcohol.
The beauty in the sociology of the Qur’anic method, on the other hand, was the equally magnificent manner in which it exploited the herd or group instinct in attempting to cure the addict.
The Qur’anic method revealed that an emotional jolt that comes from a rejection associated with the sacred could be enough to deliver to the addict the inner strength with which to stop drinking alcohol. Indeed it can force a sinner to stop committing sin altogether.
The very heart of the method of the Qur’ān therefore, is the use of love for individual and collective worship (Salāt) to cure drug addiction and alcoholism.
In the second stage as well, there is a continuation of the process of education commenced in the first stage. The revelation prohibited the drunk from entering the Masjid for prayer until such time as he could understand what he was saying. There was therefore the clear implication that a person in the state of intoxication could say anything, make an utter fool of himself, insult others, and can even insult Allah, Most High, and His Prophet (s). Elementary human reason would show such behavior to be harmful and potentially dangerous.
The third stage of the divine method witnessed legislation prohibiting both the consumption of alcohol as well as gambling (Qur’ān, al-Māidah, 5:90-91).
Even while the absolute prohibition was being promulgated, the Qur’ān still continued with the process of education by warning the believers that Satan exploits the opportunities created by intoxicants to his advantage. He breaks up the unity, fraternity and solidarity of the social order and creates enmity and hatred between people. He also succeeds in hindering people from prayer and from the remembrance of Allah, Most High.
In the third stage the Qur’ān significantly restricted itself to the promulgation of the prohibition of intoxicants, and left it to the Prophet to explain and apply the law. Thus the Prophet (s) ruled that it was unlawful to drink any drink that intoxicates.
The philosophy of punishment, as determined through the Qur’ān, is directed to one of three basic objectives. Punishment can be retributive, deterrent, or reformatory. The third stage had made the consumption of alcohol and all intoxicants to be Harām (prohibited). However the Qur’ān did not prescribe any punishment for those who violated the prohibition of consumption of alcohol. This was so perhaps, because of the fact that addiction to alcohol constituted a disease. People have differences in their biological constitutions, and so they react differently to alcohol. It would have been ethically repugnant to punish someone who was helpless in respect of abstaining from the consumption of alcohol, and had not been given enough time to cure himself. It was an eloquent testimony to the wisdom of the gradual approach of the Qur’ān that it was left to the believers to determine when it would be appropriate (if at all) to promulgate the gentle beating that Nabī Muhammad (s) and the believers now inflicted on those who persisted in consuming alcohol.
The primary function of that gentle beating was therapeutic, i.e., to help the addict to summon the inner resources to abstain from drinking. It was not punishment! It did not, and should not, be recognized as part of any penal code. Neither did the Qur’ān, nor did the Prophet (s), prescribe any punishment for the consumption of alcohol.
The system of meaning now requires that we probe to locate the reason why the divine wisdom brought about a dramatic and unique transformation of a society in which the consumption alcohol did not appear to be a great problem, into one of such complete abstinence.
Our response, and Allah Knows best, is that the divine wisdom brought about this dramatic transformation of society in order to present a model to a world which would be inundated in Ākhir al-Zamān with alcohol, alcoholism and other forms of drug addiction – which is the world today. The model was meant to deliver a message of hope to those who were drowning in alcohol and other forms of drug addiction that it was possible to live a life of happiness and satisfaction without the consumption of alcoholic beverages. This vital and powerful instrument of D’awah (or calling mankind to ‘truth’) appears not to have been understood, nor as yet applied.
The divine wisdom also presented to the world a Qur’anic method for curing alcoholism and other forms of drug addiction. (See my book entitled The Qur’anic Method of Curing Alcoholism and Drug Addiction.) This wonderful
instrument of D’awah which could be applied today with spectacular results, appears also to have been lost because of the error that was committed in not recognizing that Allah Most Wise had delivered an eternally valid method of curing alcoholism and no stage in the process was ever, or will ever, be abrogated or cancelled.
There are some scholars of Islam who have been persuaded that the Qur’anic revelations pertaining to the consumption of alcohol have been subjected to Naskh (the principle of abrogation of one divine revelation by another). They build their argument on the basis of the following verse of the Qur’ān:
“Any (Divinely-revealed) verse or message which We cancel, abrogate, or cause to be forgotten, We replace with a better or a similar one. Do you not know that Allah has the power over all things?”
(Qur’ān, al-Baqarah, 2:106)
In their view, subsequent Qur’anic revelation abrogated (Naskh) previous revelation in the Qur’ān on this subject. They also hold the view that once a Qur’anic revelation was subjected to Naskh, it ceased to possess any operational validity. It is amazing that they should hold such a view, when he who was commissioned by Allah, Most High, to teach the Qur’ān, never expressed such a view. Nabī Muhammad (s) never declared of any verse of the Qur’ān, that it was abrogated. Secondly, all those who expressed opinions that verses of the Qur’ān were abrogated were doing nothing more profound than expressing a mere opinion. Thirdly, they differed amongst themselves to such an extent that there is no agreement regarding the number of verses alleged to have been abrogated. Fourthly, even eminent companions of Nabī Muhammad (s) are alleged to have opposite opinions on the subject, and these have been recorded in the Sahīh of Imām al-Bukhārī.
The further amazing implication of the acceptance of such a view is that the Qur’anic method of dealing with alcohol and drugs was applied only once in history, and could never be applied again.
In response to a hypothetical situation in which an alcoholic wished to take the Shahādah (i.e., declaration of faith) and become a Muslim in this age, such scholars would require him to first cure himself of his alcoholism before taking the Shahādah. The reason for this is the certainty that he would have to be punished for drinking alcohol when once he became a Muslim. But how is he to be cured of his alcoholism in this age other than through the Qur’anic method? Such scholars have no answer!
If we reject belief in the internal application of Naskh to the Qur’ān, it would be possible for us to respond in a different way to the alcoholic who wished to take the Shahādah (i.e., declaration of faith) and enter into Islam. We would invite him to take the Shahādah even though he was still an alcoholic. We would then take him stage-by-stage through the Qur’anic method until, at the very end, we would respond with a gentle beating if he were to still drink alcohol. If the alcoholic was not Muslim, and came to the Muslim community for help, then he could be taken through all the stages, provided that the gentle beating at the end – if it becomes necessary – would not be applied without his prior consent.
The student of the Qur’ān should now find great benefit in searching for and locating the system of meaning with which the Qur’ān deals with subjects such as slavery, concubinage (i.e., Milk al-Yamīn), the recovery of Pharaoh’s body, Nabī Ibrāhīm’s (Abraham (a), dream of sacrifice of his son, and Muslim relations with Christians, Jews, the Torah, Psalms and Gospel, etc.
We now proceed to apply the methodology of locating the system of meaning in the Qur’ān in respect of the critically important Āyāt Mutashābihāt of the Qur’ān. We offer analysis and interpretation while examining such subjects such as Muslim relations with the Christian and the Jew, and with their Revealed Scriptures (i.e., the Torah, the Psalms and the Gospel), the Muqatta’āt of the Qur’ān, the dream of Nabī Ibrāhīm (Abraham (a), the preservation of Pharaoh’s body, and Pax Qarnain. (These strange terms are explained in the Chapter 9).
to be continued .....
