The Final Prohibition of Alcohol

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:

The Qurʾān's prohibition of alcohol unfolded in three distinct stages, the last of which, though not directly connected to the tribe itself, happened to be revealed while the Muslims were camped in siege outside the fortress of Banū al-Naḍīr.

STAGE ONE, al-Baqarah 2:219, revealed very early in the Madinan period (much of al-Baqarah predates Badr): "They ask you about wine and gambling. Say: in them is great sin and some benefit for people, but their sin is greater than their benefit." A discouragement, without an explicit ban.

STAGE TWO, al-Nisāʾ 4:43, revealed after Uḥud, following an incident in which an intoxicated Companion led prayer and made serious errors: "O you who believe, do not approach prayer while you are intoxicated." This effectively confined drinking to the hours after ʿIshāʾ and before Fajr, since prayer punctuated the rest of the day.

STAGE THREE, al-Māʾidah 5:91, revealed at Banū al-Naḍīr: "O you who believe, intoxicants, gambling, [sacrificing on] stone altars, and divining arrows are but filth from the work of Shayṭān, so avoid it, that you might succeed." The verse groups alcohol with three other pre-Islamic practices: gambling (maysir), idol-altar sacrifice (anṣāb), and divination by arrows (azlām), the same practice ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib once used to determine which of his sons to sacrifice. All four were declared filth to be avoided outright, closing the gradual process and establishing the absolute prohibition of alcohol that stands in Islamic law to this day.