This is an explicit text prohibiting the medicinal use of wine, refuting those who permit it. Other prohibited substances fall under the same ruling by analogy, contrary to those who distinguish between them. Indeed, prohibited foods are more closely comparable to wine than one crow is to another. Moreover, wine was permissible during part of the early Islamic period, and some Muslims have permitted drinking beverages of its kind provided one does not become intoxicated. This is not the case with carrion and blood.

If it is said:

“The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, stated that wine is a disease, not a remedy. It therefore cannot be called a remedy, unlike other substances. Furthermore, permitting its medicinal use would mean permitting its manufacture and the pressing of juice to make it, which would encourage drinking it. This is why, unlike other unwholesome foods, its consumption carries a prescribed punishment: people have such a strong desire for it.”

I reply:

Your statement that it cannot be called a remedy is correct. The same applies to all other prohibited substances, as indicated by the authentic hadith:

“Allah has not placed your cure in anything forbidden.”

But what do you mean by this? Do you mean that Allah has not endowed it with natural properties, such as heat and others? Experience among disbelievers and sinners has shown that it relieves certain cold ailments (1), like the other powers and properties He has placed in all medicinal substances. Or do you mean something else? For if