that a cure will result, nor is this particular remedy indispensable. Rather, Allah Most High restores His servant to health through various means. Seeking treatment is not obligatory according to the majority of scholars, so the two cases cannot be treated as analogous. Allah knows best.

He—may Allah have mercy on him—was asked:

Regarding using wine as a remedy and the view of those who permit it: what is the meaning of the Prophet’s words, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“It is a disease, not a remedy”?

What evidence do those who permit it in cases of necessity have? They also say that the hadith,

“Allah has not placed the cure for my community in what He has forbidden them,”

is weak. Permitting its medicinal use contradicts the hadith, so what evidence do those who hold this view have?

He replied:

Using wine as a remedy is forbidden according to the overwhelming majority of leading scholars, including Mālik, Ahmad and Abū Hanīfah. This is also one of the two views within the school of al-Shāfiʿī, for it is established in the Sahīh that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace,

“was asked about wine prepared for medicinal use and said: ‘It is a disease, not a remedy.’”

The Sunan of Abū Dāwūd reports that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace,

“forbade the use of foul substances as remedies.”

Wine is the mother of all foul things. Al-Bukhārī and others related that Ibn Masʿūd said:

“Allah has not placed the cure for my community in what He has forbidden them.”

It was also narrated by Abū Hātim ibn Hibbān