but if it is cooked until two-thirds have evaporated and one-third remains, it no longer intoxicates—unless spices or some other ingredient are added to it. The governing principle is:
“Everything that intoxicates is forbidden.”
This is the position of the vast majority of leading scholars, as stated by al-Shāfiʿī, Ahmad, and others. Drinking such an intoxicant incurs the prescribed punishment, and it is ritually impure according to the imams. Likewise, consuming intoxicating hashish incurs the prescribed punishment, and it is ritually impure according to the soundest juristic view. Some have held that it is ritually pure; others have distinguished between its dry and liquid forms. The first view is correct, because it intoxicates through transformation, like uncooked khamr. This differs from substances that do not intoxicate but merely deprive a person of reason, such as henbane, or those that intoxicate after transformation, such as nutmeg: these are not ritually impure.
Anyone who supposes that hashish does not intoxicate, but merely deprives a person of reason without giving pleasure, has not understood its true nature. Were it not for the pleasure it provides, people would neither take it nor eat it, unlike henbane and similar substances that provide no pleasure. In prohibiting things, the Lawgiver has distinguished between what people crave and what they do not crave. For things people do not crave, such as blood and carrion, the religious deterrent is deemed sufficient, and their consumption is subject to discretionary punishment. For things people crave, however, He has added a natural deterrent to the religious deterrent: the prescribed punishment. Hashish belongs to this category.
He—may Allah have mercy on him—was also asked:
About “al-nusūh”: Is it lawful or forbidden? People say that ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb, may Allah be pleased with him, used to prepare it. Its method of preparation is to take thirty ratls of grape juice and boil it until one-third remains. Is this how it is prepared? It has also been reported