The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “A group of my ummah will surely deem wine lawful by giving it another name.” (1)

Wine has indeed been given many names, even being called (“spirits”)!! and the like.

There are many hadiths indicating that wine drinking will become widespread in this ummah, and that some of its members will deem it lawful and change its name.

Ibn al-Arabī offered two interpretations of deeming wine lawful:

The first: believing that drinking it is lawful.

The second: that what is meant is drinking it freely, as one freely partakes of what is lawful.

He stated that he had heard and seen people doing so (2). This is even more prevalent in our own time, for some people have fallen prey to the temptation of drinking it.

Worse still is that it is sold openly and consumed publicly in some Muslim countries, while narcotics have spread on a vast and unprecedented scale—all of which portends