prescribed punishment, because it is prohibited, and the texts are general in declaring it prohibited and in requiring punishment for it; they do not stipulate that he actually become intoxicated.

His statement, “eighty lashes for a free person”: this is based on the ruling of Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), who raised the number to eighty lashes (1). Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) has an established precedent to be followed (2). This is analogous to the scholars’ adoption of Umar’s view regarding threefold divorce: that it constitutes an irrevocable divorce. During the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), Abu Bakr, and the first two years of Umar’s caliphate, however, a threefold divorce counted as one divorce (3). They thus adopted the latter of Umar’s rulings—namely, that the one who drinks wine is to be lashed eighty times.

Many scholars have held that the number between forty and eighty is left to the ruler’s discretion: if he considers it in the public interest to raise it to eighty, he may do so; otherwise, it is forty.

His statement, “and forty for a slave”: this is based on the previously mentioned principle that a slave’s punishment is half that of a free person.

There is an issue here which the author (may Allah have mercy on him) did not mention, though people need to know it: is grape juice, orange juice, and the like prohibited, or not?

The answer is that this is unquestionably lawful, unless it ferments—that is, unless foam appears in it—in which case it becomes prohibited; or if three days have passed over it