al-Muskirat wa al-Mukhaddirat
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- Islamic University of Madinah
al-Muskirat wa al-Mukhaddirat (Arabic: المسكرات والمخدرات, lit. 'Intoxicants and Narcotics'), also titled al-Muskirat wa al-Mukhaddirat wa-Mawqif al-Shariah al-Islamiyyah Minha ('Intoxicants, Narcotics, and the Stance of Islamic Law Regarding Them'), is a legal treatise written by Ahmad Hajj Ali al-Azraq, head of the Department of Jurisprudence (Fiqh) at the Faculty of Sharia in the Islamic University of Madinah . The work examines the Islamic legal prohibition, classifications, harms, and penalties concerning alcohol, narcotics, and other mind-altering substances .
Subject and Structure
The treatise approaches substance abuse from the perspective of the objectives of Islamic law (Maqasid al-Shariah), focusing on the protection of the necessary interests (al-daruriyyat): religion, life, intellect, lineage, honor, and wealth . It highlights the intellect (aql) as the foundation of religious obligation (manat al-taklif) and the defining faculty distinguishing humans from animals .
The work is organized into thematic sections:
- Prohibition of Wine (Tahrim al-Khamr): Explores the linguistic definition of khamr as anything that covers the intellect and traces the Qur'anic prohibition through its revealed stages, citing verses from Surah al-Nisa' and Surah al-Ma'idah .
- The Sunnah and Intoxicants: Cites prophetic traditions establishing that every intoxicant is prohibited, outlining the substances from which wine was historically made in Arabia .
- Prescribed Punishment (Hadd al-Shurub): Reviews the legal punishments for drinking alcohol based on reports from Anas ibn Malik, noting that flogging was set at forty lashes during the time of the Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr, and increased to eighty under Umar ibn al-Khattab .
- Intoxicants in Medicine: Addresses the prohibition of using wine as medicine, citing the hadith stating that wine is a disease rather than a remedy, alongside analysis by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya .
- Interpretation of Mentioned Benefits: Explains that the Qur'anic reference to "benefits" in wine pertains strictly to material commercial profit from trade, quoting the exegete al-Qurtubi, and notes modern legal attempts at alcohol prohibition in countries such as the United States and India .
- Narcotics and Relaxants (al-Mukhaddirat wa al-Mufattirat): Investigates the prohibition of drugs using linguistic definitions and the prophetic hadith narrated by Umm Salama forbidding every intoxicant and relaxant (kull muskir wa-mufattir) .
Legal Classifications and Substance Typology
Relying on the legal classifications formulated by Shihab al-Din al-Qarafi in Anwar al-Buruq fi Anwa' al-Furuq, the work distinguishes between three categories of mind-altering substances :
- Intoxicants (Muskir): Substances that veil the intellect without suppressing the physical senses, often producing exhilaration, agitation, and aggression .
- Anesthetics and Soporifics (Muraqqid): Agents such as surgical anesthetics that suppress physical sensations (hearing, sight, smell, taste, and touch); these are deemed permissible when needed for surgical interventions, such as amputating a limb, as noted by Ibn Farhun .
- Corruptors of the Intellect (Mufsid): Substances like cannabis (hashish) and opium that cloud the mind, produce lethargy, and corrupt character .
The treatise traces the emergence of hashish in Islamic history to the late sixth century AH during the Mongol invasions, citing legal opinions on its prohibition and penalties from Zayn al-Din al-Iraqi, Ibn Hajar al-Haytami, and Ibn Taymiyyah .
Sources
The treatise relies on classical and contemporary works, including Fath al-Bari by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Nayl al-Awtar by Muhammad al-Shawkani, Subul al-Salam by Muhammad ibn Isma'il al-San'ani, Bidayat al-Mujtahid by Ibn Rushd, al-Zawajir 'an Iqtiraf al-Kaba'ir by Ibn Hajar al-Haytami, and Majmu' al-Fatawa by Ibn Taymiyyah, alongside lexicographical and modern medical references .
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