Zahr al-Arish fi Tahrim al-Hashish
- Author died
- 794 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Wafa' li al-Tiba'ah wa al-Nashr
Zahr al-Arish fi Tahrim al-Hashish (The Blossom of the Trellis on the Prohibition of Hashish) is a legal treatise authored by the Shafi'i jurist and scholar Badr al-Din al-Zarkashi (d. 794 AH / 1392 CE) examining the historical emergence, pharmacological effects, and Islamic legal rulings concerning the consumption and handling of hashish.
Purpose and Composition
Al-Zarkashi explains in the introduction that he composed the work because the use of hashish had become widespread among commoners, and many contemporary people hesitated over its legal ruling due to the absence of explicit statements regarding it from the early generations of Muslim scholars (al-salaf). The book is also referred to in manuscript catalogs and bibliographical records under the alternate titles Zahr al-Arish fi Ahkam al-Hashish and Zahrat al-Arish fi al-Kalam ala al-Hashish.
Structure and Content
The treatise is organized into seven distinct chapters (fusul):
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Chapter One: Names and Historical Emergence (Fi Ismiha wa-Waqt Zuhuriha)
Al-Zarkashi discusses the botanical and colloquial names of the plant, including al-qinnab al-hindi (Indian hemp), waraq al-shahdanaj, al-ghubayra', al-haydariyya, and al-qalandariyya. He records the account that its intoxicating property was first discovered around 550 AH by a figure named Haydar, after whom it was called al-haydariyya, as well as an attribution to Ahmad al-Mariji al-Qalandi. Citing Ibn Taymiyyah, he clarifies that the four eponymous Imams of jurisprudence and early scholars did not address hashish because it did not exist in their era, having entered the Islamic lands during the Mongol invasions in the late 6th and early 7th centuries AH. -
Chapter Two: Harms to Mind and Body (Fi Madarriha fi al-Aql wa-al-Badan)
The author relates that some scholars enumerated up to 120 religious and worldly harms caused by hashish. Citing medical authorities such as Muhammad ibn Zakariyya al-Razi, he outlines its somatic afflictions, including drying bodily humors, headache, sudden death, mental impairment, leprosy, trembling, and emaciation. Its religious harms include neglecting prayer, losing modesty (haya'), corrupting character, and eroding chivalric virtue (muru'ah). -
Chapter Three: Intoxication and Corruption of Intellect (Fi Annaha Muskira wa-Mufsida li-l-Aql)
Al-Zarkashi reviews medical, botanical, and legal positions on whether hashish is an intoxicant (muskir) or merely a corruptor of the intellect (mufsid). He cites the botanist Ibn al-Baytar as well as jurists such as Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi and al-Nawawi to demonstrate that it causes intoxication. He engages with and refutes the distinction made by the Maliki jurist Shihab al-Din al-Qarafi, who argued that hashish produces stupor rather than the joyous agitation characteristic of wine. Al-Zarkashi maintains that the initial state of the consumer involves euphoria (nash'ah) and that altering cognitive perception falls squarely within the definition of intoxication. -
Chapter Four: Legal Prohibition (Fi Annaha Haram)
He establishes its categorical prohibition through textual evidence from the Quran and the Sunnah, citing prophetic traditions including كُلُّ مُسْكِرٍ خَمْرٌ، وَكُلُّ خَمْرٍ حَرَامٌ ("Every intoxicant is wine, and every wine is unlawful") and نَهَى رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ﷺ عَنْ كُلِّ مُسْكِرٍ وَمُفَتِّرٍ ("The Messenger of Allah ﷺ prohibited every intoxicant and languor-inducing substance [mufattir]"). While citing reports of scholarly consensus (ijma') on its prohibition and noting Ibn Taymiyyah's ruling declaring takfir on whoever deems it lawful, al-Zarkashi adds a methodological caveat that knowledge of its prohibition may not have reached the level of absolute religious necessity (ma'lum min al-din bi-l-darurah). -
Chapter Five: Ritual Purity or Impurity (Fi Annaha Tahira aw Najisa)
The chapter assesses whether hashish is ritually pure (tahir) or impure (najis). Al-Zarkashi argues that, by juristic analogy (qiyas), raw plant matter remains ritually pure, unlike fermented liquid wine, noting that plants are fundamentally ritually pure even when toxic or harmful. -
Chapter Six: Prescribed Punishment (Fi Annahu Hal Yajib fiha al-Hadd)
He examines whether the fixed penal punishment for drunkenness (hadd) or a discretionary censure (ta'zir) applies to consumers. Citing legal authorities such as al-Mawardi, al-Zarkashi concludes that because hashish intoxicates and causes erratic speech, the fixed penalty is warranted. -
Chapter Seven: Derivative Legal Rulings (Fi Furu' Mutafarriqa wa-Muwalladat)
The final chapter addresses various subsidiary rulings: carrying hashish during ritual prayer; whether consuming minute, non-intoxicating quantities is forbidden (where he disagrees with al-Nawawi's permissibility of minuscule doses, arguing that anything intoxicating in large amounts is forbidden in small amounts); the obligation of inducing vomiting if an intoxicating dose is ingested; emergency consumption in life-threatening starvation; regulated medicinal uses; the prohibition of selling or cultivating it for illicit purposes; and the legal validity of a divorce uttered while under its influence.
Editions
The work has been edited and published in modern print, including an edition prepared by Ahmad Faraj and published by Dar al-Wafa' in al-Mansurah, Egypt (2nd ed., 1411 AH / 1990 CE).
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