for drinking wine, and they likewise concur that he is not to be put to death when the offence recurs. Only a small, isolated group held that he should be executed after having been flogged four times, arguing from the ḥadith in question, which the overwhelming majority deem abrogated.

Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah said: “It has been transmitted through several chains from the Prophet ﷺ: ‘Whoever drinks wine, flog him; if he drinks again, flog him; if he drinks again, flog him; and if he drinks it a third or fourth time, then kill him.’ ”

Thus the text commands the killing of the drinker on the third or fourth occasion, yet most scholars do not regard execution as obligatory. Instead, they treat the report as abrogated, and this is the well-known view of the leading imams.

Abū ʿĪsā al-Tirmidhī stated: “The command to kill applied only at the outset; afterwards it was abrogated.”

It is authentically established in the Ṣaḥīḥ collections that a man nicknamed Ḥimār used to drink wine. Whenever he drank, the Prophet ﷺ would flog him. On one such occasion a man cursed him, whereupon the Prophet said, “Do not curse him, for he loves Allah and His Messenger.” This clearly shows that he was repeatedly flogged despite frequent drinking.

Ṣiddīq said in al-Rawḍah: “Some narrations order execution on the third offence, others on the fourth, and still others on the fifth; yet there is also evidence of abrogation in the Prophet’s own practice ﷺ, for he set aside the death penalty for the wine-drinker. All scholars have agreed on this, with the exception of a few adherents of the Ẓāhirī school.”