Food Resources and their Transformation - Food Culture and Health in Pre-Modern Islamic Societies - page 139

the drinks prepared by Muammad's
wives and drunk by him (Muslim). Abū
Dāwūd and Ibn Māa have preserved a
tradition on this subject which is instruc-
tive. Ibn Māa's version is given here:
Āia said “We used to prepare nabī
for the Apostle of God in a skin; we took
a handful of dates or a handful of raisins,
cast it into the skin and poured water
upon it. The nabī we prepared in this
way in the morning was drunk by him in
the evening; and when we prepared it in
the evening he drank it the next morn-
ing”. In another tradition of the same bāb ,
Ibn Abbās says that the Prophet used to
drink this nabī even on the third day;
but what was left then was poured out.
All this could, however, not persuade
the majority of the faīhs to declare nabī
allowed; three of the mahab s as well as
the īa prohibit the use of nabī. The
anafī school, on the other hand, allows
it, when used with moderation, for medic-
inal purposes, etc.
It would take us too far to give here
a detailed survey of the opinions of the
faīhs of all mahab s; it would be superflu-
ous, to some extent at least, because the
more important differences regard chiefly
nabī only.
Allowed according to the imā is non-
fermented, very sweet drink.
Prohibited ( arām ), according to the
imā , are wine and sakar of every kind. As
to wine, there are six cases: to drink it in
any quantity or to make use of it is arām ;
to deny this is kufr ; to buy, sell, present
it, etc. is arām ; no responsibility ( imān )
rests on him who spoils or destroys wine
( mutlifhā ); whether wine is a possession
( māl ) is an unsettled point; it is nais just
as blood and urine; he who drinks any
quantity of it is liable to punishment.
Several kinds of products prepared by
means of grapes ( bāi, munaaf , etc.)
are prohibited according to the majority
( āmma ) of the faīh s.

Allowed, according to the majority of
the faīhs are ilā (see above) or mualla
and nabī from dates with the restrictions
mentioned above. So is juice from grapes
when the process of cooking has made
to evaporate two-thirds. Muammad
(aybānī) has a deviating opinion on
this point.
As to the punishment of him who drinks
wine, adī tells us that Muammad
and Abū Bakr were wont to inflict forty
blows by means of palm branches or
sandals. Under Umar's caliphate, how-
ever, ālid b. al-Walīd reported to him
that people were indulging in prohibited
drinks. Thereupon Umar consulted the
Companions, who advised him to fix the
number of blows at eighty, a number sug-
gested by the urān which prescribes that
those who accuse musanāt of zinā , with-
out being able to prove their accusations
by the aid of four witnesses, shall be pun-
ished with eighty blows (Sūra XXIV, 4).
Repeated drinking of wine, according
to some traditions, was punished by death
at Muammad's order (Abū Dāwūd, Ibn
Māa, Amad b. anbal ). It is, how-
ever, added in some traditions that capital
punishment in such cases is not accord-
ing to the sunna of the Prophet (Amad b.
anbal, ayālisī).
The different mahab s have adopted
Umar's view; drinking wine is punished
with eighty blows; if the transgressor is a
slave this number is however reduced to
forty, because in the urān the punish-
ment of the handmaid's zinā is fixed at
half the amount of blows with which the
free woman is punished (Sūra IV, 30).
The āfiis, however, cling to the prac-
tice ascribed to Muammad and Abū
Bakr; with them the number of blows is
consequently forty or twenty.
The prohibition of wine and spirits
(according to three of the four mahab s)
is one of the distinctive marks of the Mus-
lim world; its consequences can hardly be