should receive a discretionary punishment less severe than the prescribed punishment, since they supposed that it altered the mind without producing euphoria, like the plant banj. We have found no discussion of it by the earlier scholars. Yet that supposition is incorrect: those who consume it experience euphoria and crave it just as wine drinkers crave wine, or even more. When they consume it excessively, it turns them away from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer, besides its other harmful effects: indifference to sexual misconduct within one’s family, effeminacy, corruption of the constitution and mind, and so forth.

However, because it is a solid substance that is eaten rather than drunk, jurists within the school of Ahmad and elsewhere have differed over its ritual impurity, expressing three views. One holds that it is ritually impure, like wine that is drunk; this is the sound analogy. Another holds that it is not, because it is solid. A third distinguishes between its solid and liquid forms. In any event, both the wording and the meaning of Allah’s and His Messenger’s prohibition of wine and intoxicants encompass it.

Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī, may Allah be pleased with him, said:

“O Messenger of Allah, give us a ruling on two drinks we used to make in Yemen: bitʿ, made from honey left to ferment until it becomes strong, and mizr, made from sorghum and barley left to ferment until it becomes strong.”

He continued: “The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had been endowed with comprehensive and conclusive speech. He said: ‘Every intoxicant is forbidden.’”

Reported by both al-Bukhārī and Muslim in their Sahīh collections.

Al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr, may Allah be pleased with him, reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Wine can be made from wheat, from barley, from raisins, from dates, and from honey. I forbid every intoxicant.”

Reported by