If, however, a person loses his reason through something forbidden—such as drinking wine or consuming hashish, attending melodious singing and listening until he loses his reason, engaging in innovated acts of worship until some devils attach themselves to him and impair his reason, or taking henbane that deprives him of reason—such people deserve blame and punishment for what they have done to deprive themselves of reason.

Many of these people induce a satanic state by doing what pleases them: dancing wildly until they lose their reason, or snorting and bellowing until the satanic state comes upon them. Many deliberately seek bewilderment until they become deranged. All these people belong to Satan’s party, and such conduct is known of more than one of them.

The scholars have disagreed over whether they remain “subject to religious obligations” while deprived of reason. The underlying issue is “the case of an intoxicated person.” The explicitly transmitted position of al-Shāfi‘ī, Ahmad, and others is that such a person remains subject to religious obligations while deprived of reason. Many scholars, however, hold that he is not; this is one of the two positions within the schools of al-Shāfi‘ī and Ahmad. One of the two reports from Ahmad also holds that a divorce pronounced by an intoxicated person does not take effect. This is the stronger of the two views.

None of the scholars has said that those who lose their reason through such means thereby become Allah’s close allies, devoted to His oneness, or members of His successful party. As for those among the ‘wise madmen’ whom the scholars have mentioned favorably, they belong to the first category: those who possessed goodness before losing their reason.