[the people of] the major cities, in accordance with the widely transmitted Sunnah from the Prophet—may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him—and his Companions establishing its prohibition; indeed, they went even further than those scholars in adhering to the Sunnah.

Imam Ahmad composed a major work on beverages—I know of no [one] who composed a larger work on the subject—as well as a shorter work. He was the first to make this Sunnah manifest in Iraq. Indeed, one of them came to Baghdad and asked, “Is there anyone here who prohibits infused beverages?” They replied, “No—only Ahmad ibn Hanbal, to the exclusion of the other imams.”

In this matter, he followed the Sunnah as a whole, to the extent that he prohibited pressed juice and infused beverages after three days, even if they had not yet developed any evident intoxicating potency. He did so in adherence to the transmitted Sunnah on the matter, for three days is generally the point at which such potency is likely to appear. Since the underlying rationale is not readily perceptible here, its usual indicator was made to stand in its place. He even disapproved of an infusion made by combining two ingredients—either as merely discouraged or as prohibited, according to the two reports related from him. His position also varied concerning the preparation of infusions in containers: was it permissible, prohibited, or disliked? This was because the hadiths of prohibition are exceedingly numerous, whereas those establishing abrogation are few. His legal reasoning therefore varied over whether those widely transmitted reports could be abrogated by reports such as these, which amount to no more than solitary reports and none of which al-Bukhārī included.

Regarding foods, they adopted the position of the people of Kufa because of the authentic Sunnah reports from the Prophet—may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him—prohibiting every fanged predatory beast and every taloned bird, and prohibiting