Dhamm al-Muskar li-Ibn Abi al-Dunya
- Author died
- 281 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Rāyah
Dhamm al-Muskar (The Censure of Intoxicants) is a hadith treatise by the Baghdadi scholar Ibn Abi al-Dunya (d. 281 AH / 894 CE) addressing the prohibition of wine and intoxicating drinks in Islamic law and ethics .
Subject and Content
The treatise is arranged around narrated reports (athar) and prophetic hadiths transmitted with their chains of transmission (isnad), illustrating the harms, legal status, and spiritual perils of consuming alcohol . Ibn Abi al-Dunya cites narrations emphasizing that wine is "the mother of all vices" (umm al-khaba'ith) and "the key to every evil" (miftah kulli sharr), including the report narrated by Uthman ibn Affan about an ancient worshiper who chose wine as seemingly the lesser offense, only to be led by intoxication to commit murder and adultery .
The text compiles reports covering several key themes:
- Prophetic traditions establishing the comprehensive prohibition of intoxicants, such as كُلُّ مُسْكِرٍ خَمْرٌ وَكُلُّ مُسْكِرٍ حَرَامٌ ("Every intoxicant is wine, and every intoxicant is forbidden") and مَا أَسْكَرَ كَثِيرُهُ فَقَلِيلُهُ حَرَامٌ ("Whatever intoxicates in large amounts, a small amount of it is forbidden") .
- Prophecies concerning the end times, including the hadith stating that later generations of the Muslim community would deem wine lawful under different names .
- Regulations on beverages such as raisins (zabib) and fermented date-wine (nabidh), clarifying permissible preparations and prohibiting intoxicating brews, along with the statement that God did not place healing in unlawful substances .
- The severe theological warnings directed at the habitual drinker of wine (mudmin al-khamr) .
Transmission and Reception
The work circulated widely among traditional scholars and was recorded in early bibliographical and transmission compendia. It is cataloged among Ibn Abi al-Dunya's writings by Ibn Khayr al-Ishbili in his Fahrasa and by Ibn Rajab in Dhayl Tabaqat al-Hanabila as a single monograph (juz') . Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani transmitted it through his own chain of authorities in al-Mu'jam al-mu'assas, as did Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Rudani in Silat al-khalaf bi-mawsul al-salaf, where it appears under the title Dhamm al-sakar .
The Shafi'i jurist Badr al-Din Ibn Jama'ah prepared an abridgment of the work . The treatise also served as an early model for later topical monographs on the censure of intoxication, such as those composed by Diya al-Din al-Maqdisi and others .
Modern Editions
The text has been published in several critical editions, including:
- An edition edited by Najm 'Abd al-Rahman Khalaf, published by Dar al-Raya in Riyadh (1409 AH / 1988–1989 CE) .
- An edition edited and annotated by Yasin Muhammad al-Sawwas, published by Dar al-Basha'ir in Damascus (1412 AH / 1992 CE) .
- An edition edited by Muhammad Yunus Shu'ayb, published by Dar al-Bayaariq (1419 AH / 1999 CE) .
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