is forbidden.”

Ibn ʿUmar narrated that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Whatever intoxicates in large quantities is forbidden even in small quantities.”

This was narrated by Ibn Mājah and al-Dāraqutnī, who graded it authentic. The compilers of the Sunan narrated similar reports from Jābir and from ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb, from his father, from his grandfather. There are many authentic hadiths on this subject.

However, the scholars who held a contrary view were excused because these hadiths had not reached them. They had heard that some Companions drank nabīdh (a fruit infusion), and reports to that effect had reached them. They therefore assumed that what those Companions drank was intoxicating. Yet what the Companions actually disagreed about was what had been steeped in rigid vessels. For:

“The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, forbade making nabīdh in gourds, in earthenware vessels made from clay, in hollowed-out wooden vessels, and in vessels coated with pitch. He instructed them to make nabīdh in vessels whose mouths were tied shut.”

This means soaking dates or raisins in water until it becomes sweet, then drinking it while it is still sweet, before it becomes strong. This is lawful by the agreement of the Muslims. He forbade them to prepare this lawful nabīdh in those vessels because the drink gradually becomes stronger, so a Muslim might drink it without realizing that it had become intoxicating and would thus have drunk something forbidden. He instructed them to prepare nabīdh in vessels whose mouths they tied shut, because if the drink became strong, the vessel would split, preventing them from drinking an intoxicant.

There are many widely transmitted hadiths prohibiting “nabīdh prepared in sturdy vessels.” Subsequently, however, he was reported to have permitted this, as recorded in Sahīh Muslim, where Buraydah ibn al-Husayb reported the words of