that state of non-prohibition; it does not abrogate the Quran. However, the scholars of hadith did not agree with the Kufans on everything they prohibited. Rather, they permitted horse meat because authentic reports establish that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) permitted it on the day of Khaybar, and that his Companions slaughtered a horse during his lifetime and ate its meat.

They also permitted the spiny-tailed lizard, because authentic reports establish that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said:

“I do not forbid it.”

It was also eaten at his table while he watched, and he did not object to those who ate it. They likewise permitted other foods for which permission had been reported. Thus, they prohibited fewer foods than the scholars of Kufa, just as they prohibited more drinks than the scholars of Medina. This is because the texts indicating the prohibition of intoxicating drinks are more numerous than those indicating the prohibition of foods. Moreover, the scholars of Medina had more predecessors among the Companions and Successors who regarded as lawful what they permitted than the scholars of Kufa had for permitting intoxicants.

The harms arising from intoxicants are greater than those arising from unwholesome foods. Hence wine was called “the mother of all evils,” as ‘Uthmān ibn ‘Affān (may Allah be pleased with him) and others called it. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) ordered that those who drank it be flogged; he and his caliphs carried this out, and the scholars unanimously agreed upon it. This is unlike prohibited foods, for no scholar held that eating them incurred a prescribed punishment, apart from what has reached us from al-Hasan al-Basrī. Indeed, he (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) even ordered