HKB
a little; but never enough to intoxicate. Boy, bring me a glass."--He was the only Muslim, however, whom I have heard to argue against the absolute interdiction of inebriating liquors.
Histories tell us that some of the early followers of the Prophet indulged in wine, holding the text above referred to as indecisive; and that Moḥammad was at first doubtful upon this subject appears from another text, in which his followers were told not to come to prayer when they were drunk, until they should know what they would say;[183] an injunction somewhat similar to one in the Bible;[184] but when frequent and severe contentions resulted from their use of wine, the following more decided condemnation of the practice was pronounced:--"O ye who have become believers, verily wine and lots and images and divining-arrows are an abomination of the work of the Devil; therefore, avoid them, that ye may prosper."[185] This law is absolute: its violation in the smallest degree is criminal. The punishment ordained by the law for drinking (or, according to most doctors, for even tasting) wine or spirits, or inducing intoxication by any other means, on ordinary occasions, is the infliction of eighty stripes in the case of a free man, and forty in that of a slave; but if the crime be openly committed in the course of any day of the month of Ramaḍán, when others are fasting, the punishment prescribed is death!
The prohibition of wine hindered many of the Prophet's contemporaries from embracing his religion. It is said that the famous poet El-Aạshà, who was one of them, delayed to join his cause on this account, until death prevented him. A person passing by his tomb (at Menfooḥáh, in El-Yemámeh), and observing that it was moist, asked the reason, and was answered, that the young men of the place, considering him still as their cup-companion, drank wine over his grave, and poured his cup upon it.[186] Yet many of the most respectable of the pagan Arabs, like certain of the Jews and early Christians, abstained totally from wine, from a feeling of its injurious effects upon morals, and, in their climate, upon health; or, more especially, from the fear of being led by it into the commission of foolish and degrading actions. Thus, Ḳeys the son of 'Áṣim, being one night overcome with wine, attempted to grasp the moon, and swore that he would not quit the spot where he stood until he had laid hold of it: after leaping several times with the view of doing so, he fell flat upon his face; and when he recovered his senses, and was acquainted with the cause of his face being bruised, he made a solemn vow to abstain from wine ever after.[187] A similar feeling operated upon many Muslims more than religious principle. The Khaleefeh 'Abd-El-Melik Ibn-Marwán took pleasure in the company of a slave named Naṣeeb, and one day desired him to drink with him. The slave replied, "O Prince of the Faithful, I am not related to thee, nor have I any authority over thee, and I am of no rank or lineage: I am a black slave, and my wit and politeness have drawn me into thy favour: how then shall I take that which will plunder me of these two qualities; and by what shall I then propitiate thee?" The Khaleefeh admired and excused him.[188]
It was the custom of many Muslim princes, as might be inferred from the above anecdote, to admit the meanest of their dependants to participate in their unlawful carousals when they could have no better companions; but poets and musicians were their more common associates on these occasions; and these two classes, and especially the latter, are in the present day the most addicted to intoxicating liquors. Few modern Arab musicians are so well contented with extraordinary payment and mere sweet sherbet as with a moderate fee and plenty of wine and brandy; and many of them deem even wine but a sorry beverage.