Food Resources and their Transformation - Food Culture and Health in Pre-Modern Islamic Societies - page 137

with the motives mentioned above, to
induce Muammad to prohibit wine.
The prohibition of the urān has been
taken over by the jurists; all mahab s, and
also the īa, call wine arām and the
wine-trade is forbidden. Theology reck-
ons the drinking of wine among the grav-
est sins ( kabāir ).
adī has many utterances regarding
this theme. Wine is the key of all evil
(Amad b. anbal, Ibn Māa). Who
drinks wine in this world without repent-
ing of it, shall not drink it in the other
world (Buārī, Muslim). Cursed is he
who drinks, buys, sells wine or causes
others to drink it (Abū Dāwūd, Ibn
Māa, Amad b. anbal ). Who drinks
a draught of wine on purpose shall have
to drink pus on Doomsday. Prayer of him
who drinks wine is not accepted by God
(Nasāī, Dārimī), and faith is incompat-
ible with drinking it (Buārī, Nasāī). It
is even inadvisable to use it as medicine
(Muslim, Amad b. anbal ); and it is
prohibited to use wine for manufacturing
vinegar (Tirmiī, Amad b. anbal ).
But times will become ever worse and
there will be people who declare wine
allowed (Buārī, Nasāī), and so it will be
drunk by the generation of the last days
(Buārī, Amad b. anbal ).
The prohibition of wine, although
unanimously accepted, gave rise to dis-
sensions between the juridical schools,
dissensions which are reflected in adī in
a historical disguise. The discussions start
from the question: what is wine? It is said
that, when the use of wine was peremp-
torily prohibited, the people of Medina
poured out in the streets all that they pos-
sessed of the appreciated liquor (Amad
b. anbal ). Ibn Umar declares, on the
contrary, that at the time of the prohibi-
tion, there was no wine in Medina at all
(Buārī). Anas b. Mālik says that there
was scarcely any wine from grapes in Med-
ina, when the prohibition was revealed;
people used wine from busr and tamr (two

kinds of dates). In another tradition wine
from faī and zahw (two other kinds of
dates) is mentioned. Umar is represented
as delivering a uba which was meant to
settle the question; according to his son
Abd Allāh, he said: Wine has been pro-
hibited by the urān; it comes from five
kinds of fruits, from grapes, from dates,
from honey, from wheat and from bar-
ley; wine is what obscures the intellect ( wa
'l-amr mā āmara al-al ; Buārī). The
question remained, whether beverages
prepared from grapes in a different way
were prohibited. There was e.g. a kind
of syrup. “When Umar visited Syria, the
population complained of its unhealthy
and heavy climate and they added: This
drink alone will heal us. Then Umar
allowed them to drink honey. Then they
said: Honey cannot heal us. Thereupon
one of the natives of Syria said to him:
May we not prepare something of this
drink for you? It has no inebriating power.
He said: All right. Then they cooked it till
two-thirds were evaporated and one-third
of it remained. They brought it to Umar,
who put his finger into it and licked it.
Then he said: This is ilā like camels' ilā
(viz. the pitch with which they smeared
their skins). Then he allowed them to
drink it” (Mālik). According to the first
chapter of the same kitāb , however, Umar
punishes a man who had become drunk
on ilā . Juice from grapes, prepared by
pressing them only, is considered as wine.
āri b. Suwayd al-aramī said to the
Prophet, We have in our country grapes
which we press. May we drink the juice?
He said: No. This negative answer is
given three times and when āri asks
whether the juice may be given the sick to
drink, Muammad answers: It is no med-
icine, it is sickness (Amad b. anbal ).
And not only those who drink and sell
wine are cursed by Muammad, but also
those who press grapes and have them
pressed in order to drink the juice (Ibn
Māa).