the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“I had forbidden you to prepare drinks in anything other than leather vessels. Now drink from any vessel, but do not drink anything intoxicating.”

In another narration:

“I had forbidden you to use certain vessels, but a vessel neither makes anything lawful nor makes it unlawful. Every intoxicant is forbidden.”

Some of the Companions and Successors did not consider the abrogation established, so they followed the earlier hadiths. Others considered the abrogation authentic and therefore permitted preparing nabīdh in any vessel. This is the position of Abū Hanīfah and al-Shāfiʿī. Mālik held that certain vessels remained prohibited, while two positions are reported from Ahmad.

When a group of scholars in Kufa heard that some of the early generations had drunk nabīdh, they assumed that they had drunk something intoxicating. A group of them—including al-Shāfiʿī, al-Nakhaʿī, Abū Hanīfah, Sharīk, Ibn Abī Laylā, and others—therefore held that this was lawful, as explained above. In this, they exercised independent legal judgment, seeking the truth. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“When a judge exercises independent judgment and reaches the correct decision, he receives two rewards. When he exercises independent judgment and errs, he receives one reward.”

The remaining scholars, however, followed those authentic hadiths. This is the position reliably established from the Companions, and clear analogical reasoning also supports it. For Allah Most High said:

“Satan seeks only to stir up enmity and hatred among you through wine and gambling, and to turn you away from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer. Will you not then desist?”

The harm for which Allah, glorified and exalted is He, prohibited wine is that it turns people away from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer, and causes enmity and hatred. This is common to all intoxicants; in this respect, there is no difference between one intoxicant and another.