The same applies to reports that a group of eminent Medinans engaged in anal intercourse, despite the report narrated by Abū Dāwūd that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“Whoever has intercourse with a woman in her anus has disbelieved in what was revealed to Muhammad.”

Would any Muslim consider it permissible to say that so-and-so and so-and-so disbelieved in what was revealed to Muhammad?

Likewise, it is authentically reported from him, peace and blessings be upon him, that “he cursed ten people in connection with khamr (intoxicating drink): the one who presses it, the one who has it pressed, and the one who drinks it.”

It is also authentically reported through several chains that he said:

“Every drink that intoxicates is khamr.”

And he said:

“Every intoxicant is khamr.”

ʿUmar, may Allah be pleased with him, addressed the Emigrants and the Helpers from the Prophet’s pulpit, peace and blessings be upon him, saying: “Khamr is whatever clouds the mind.” Allah revealed the prohibition of khamr, and the occasion for that revelation was what they used to drink in Medina. Their only drink was fadīkh, a drink made from crushed unripe dates; they had no grape wine at all.

Yet some Kufans, among the finest of this community in knowledge and practice, believed that only drink made from grapes was khamr, and that, for infused drinks made from anything other than grapes and dates, only the quantity that caused intoxication was forbidden. They would drink what they believed to be lawful.

It is therefore impermissible to say that these men fall under the threat of punishment, because of the excuse underlying their interpretation or because of other impediments. Nor may it be said that the drink they consumed was not among the khamr whose drinker is cursed. For the particular circumstance that occasioned a general statement must necessarily fall within its scope, and there was no grape wine in Medina. Furthermore, “the Prophet