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- by Dr. Mohammad Haitham Al-Khayat

Prohibition of Drugs and All Intoxicating Substances

5.1     All divine religions prohibit taking substances that cause damage to the brain, or induce unconsciousness or impaimlent of the mind.

Muslims are agreed, and so are all creeds, that the overall objective of the law is the preservation of the five basic essential elements of human life: belief, body, mind, offspring and properly.

Narcotic drugs have been prohibited by Islam as a consequence of the prohibition of intoxicating drinks, which are felt to be at the root of all grave and serious offences. Alcohol is at the same time the main substance that has a negative effect on the mind. This prohibition is absolute. Drinking intoxicants, trading in them, and indeed the mere handling of any of them, are considered in Islamic law offences that incur punishment.

Let us look at what the Quran has to say with respect to the prohibition of intoxicants. "Intoxicants and games of chance, idolatrous practices and the divining of arrows are abominations devised by Satan. Avoid them, so that you may prosper. Satan seeks to stir up enmity and hatred among you by means of  intoxicants and gambling, and to keep you from the remembrance of God and from your prayers. So, will you not, then, desist ?" (5: 90-91). "

This represents one of the most powerful types of prohibition in the Quran, as it covers the following important points:

5.1.1     Branding intoxicating drinks as an abomination.

5.1.2     Classifying them on a par with games of chance, idolatrouspractices and the " divining  of arrows all of  which have been pronounced as absolutely forbidden in statements that combine authenticity with a definitive import.

5.1.3     Branding them as devised by Satan.

5.1.4     The use of the imperative 'avoid' makes the injunction much stronger and more significant than it would have been had the word 'prohibited' been used. The implication here is to  avoid intoxicating drinks in all forms and situations, including drinking, trading and  carrying or freighting them, or giving them as gifts, etc.

5.1.5      Equating drinking intoxicants with idolatrous practices, which God has so severely  forbidden in the  Quran: "A void the .filth of worshipping idols and avoid falsehood" Pilgrimage.

5.1.6      Making the avoidance of intoxicants a precondition for prosperity. A believer cannot be happy with himself while practicing what is detrimental to his prosperily and happiness.

5.1.7      Slaling that inloxicants stir enmity and hatred between people.

5.1.8      Describing them as a means Satan manipulates to turn people away from the remembrance of God, which is always a source of peace and reassurance.

5.1.9       Prayer is a deterrent against indecency and sinfulness, and it is through drinking that people are prevented from observing the duty of prayer.

5.1.10     The relevant Quranic verses forbidding intoxicants are concluded with the rhetoric form: "Will you not, then, desist ?" This is the strongest form of threat. On hearing it, the Prophet's companions  response was, "We do, Our Lord: We do!" (21).

5.2         The ruling with respect to drugs is the same as that on intoxicating drinks. Umar ibn Al-Khallab says:  "Prohibited intoxicants are those thai .influence the functioning of the mind". Any substance that siezes the human mind and subdues or impairs its faculties of discretion, recognition, and  judgement would be considered unlawful in accordance with the edicts of God and His Messenger, until the Day of Judgement (22).

The Prophet is quoted as saying: "Every intoxicant is unlawful. Every narcotic is unlawful. If a   substance intoxicates when taken in large quantities then evely small quantity of it is forbidden. Whatever influences the functioning of the mind is forbidden " (23),

The prohibition of such substances is in consequence of the malice and harm they cause. The AIDS epidemic has revealed a new kind of threat, hitherto unknown to man, which is the possibility of   infection with AIDS and similar fatal diseases, when drugs are taken by intravenous injection,  using contaminated needles, were this to be the only threat posed by the use of drugs, it would have been cause enough to make it forbidden. However, we have the consensus of religious scholars that all types of drugs that influence the human mind are not permissible to take.

5.3       Christianity also prohibits the use of such substances that clearly affect the functioning of the  mind.   We read in the Old Testament that, Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the hear" ( Hosea: 4,11 ).

The isolation of unhealthy members of society is another Biblical precept. These undoubtedly include drug addicts, especially intravenous drug users (25).

We can now see that, for Christians and Muslims, the two predominant faiths in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, religious observance leads to one and the same conclusion: the elimination of all, or most, means and routes that lead to the infection with and spread of, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Medical precept. These undoubtedly include drug addicts, especially intravenous drug users (25).

We can now see that, for Christians and Muslims, the two predominant faiths in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, religious observance leads to one and the same conclusion: the elimination of all, or most, means and routes that lead to the infection with and spread of, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.