Question: Some people say that wine and alcoholic drinks are beneficial to health and it is not sinful to consume them in moderate amounts. What does Islam say about alcohol?
ANSWER
The word khamr appears in the Qur’an al-karim and hadith-i sharifs. Khamr refers to alcoholic drinks. It has scientifically been proven many times that alcohol causes various diseases, weakens the mind, impairs the liver, and damages the brain and nerves. Even a non-Muslim should abstain from alcohol due to its negative effect on health. A Muslim, on the other hand, must not drink even a drop of it, even if it were not harmful to health. The Qur’an al-karim says (what means):

(O you who believe! Alcoholic drinks, gambling, idols, fortune telling arrows are filthy practices of Satan. Avoid them, so that you may attain salvation. By means of alcoholic drinks and gambling, Satan desires to cast enmity and hatred among you and to turn you away from the remembrance of Allah and from salat. Then let you all desist.) [Al-Ma’idah 90, 91]

It is stated in hadith-i sharifs:
(A definite ruling came down concerning alcoholic drinks’ being haram.) [Muslim]

(All drinks that have undergone ikhtimar  [production of alcohol]  are haram.) [Abu Dawud]

(Whatever intoxicates in large quantities, a little of it is haram, too.) [Nasai]

(Alcohol does not have medicinal properties.  It causes diseases.) [Muslim]

(Alcohol is the head of all evil.) [Tabarani]

(Alcohol brings about evil.) [Bayhaqi, Ruzayn]

(Alcohol is the key to all evil.) [Ibn Majah]

(One who believes in Allah and the hereafter must not drink alcoholic drinks or even sit at the table where they are consumed.) [Tabarani]

(Avoid alcohol. Just as a tree grows branches, alcohol emits evil.) [Ibn Majah]

(Alcohol is the greatest of sins. It is the mother of all evil and sins.) [Tabarani]

(Whoever drinks alcohol, his curtain of shame is torn, and Satan will be his comrade. He will urge him to all evils and keep him from all good things.) [Tabarani]

(While an alcohol addict is rising from his grave, the statement  “He is deprived from the mercy of Allah” will be seen between his two eyes.) [Daylami]

(Angels of Compassion stay away from a person who is drunk.) [Bazzar]

(Whoever drinks alcohol, on the Day of Rising, his face will be black, and his tongue will be floppy. Everyone will escape from his unpleasant smell.) [Zawajir]

(A time will come when the name of alcohol will be changed and it will be considered lawful [halal].) [Imam-I Ahmad]

(Alcohol is worse than adultery.) [Riyad-un-Nasihin]]

(Allahu ta’ala cursed him who drinks alcohol, who makes another drink it, who buys and sells it, who makes it, who keeps it, who carries it, the one whom it is carried to, and who consumes its price.) [Ibn Majah]
(A king held a man and said to him, “Choose one of these: consuming alcohol, murder, adultery, or eating pork. Or else I will kill you.” He chose alcohol. When he drank it, he committed the others, too.) [Tabarani, Hakim]

(All evils are in a locked place. The key to that place is alcohol. The one who consumes it unlocks that door and falls in it.) [Abdurrazzaq]

(All evils have gathered at a place. The lock of it is adultery, and the key to it is alcohol. All good things have gathered at a place. The lock of it is salat, and the key to it is wudu’.) [Islam Ahlakı]

(In ancient times, while an ‘abid was worshiping on a secluded spot, a woman seeing him fell in love with him. She sent her servant to him. The servant told him that he was summoned for testimony. He went. He came to the beautiful lady after passing a few doors. She said, “Kill this child or have sexual intercourse with me or drink this wine. If you do not commit one of them, I will cry out with all my strength and will disgrace you.” He preferred to drink wine. After drinking it, he got drunk. Then he had sexual intercourse with the woman and then killed the child. By Allah, belief and wine cannot coexist.  One dispels the other.) [Ibn Hibban]