and His kindness and blessings that is not found elsewhere.

If it is said: “Wine is the same before and after its prohibition. Does declaring it foul only after its prohibition not amount to making a distinction without a distinguishing reason?”

The reply is: This is not so. Rather, He prohibited it precisely when wisdom called for its prohibition. Something’s being good or bad is not like its being black or white. Rather, it is like its being beneficial or harmful, agreeable or disagreeable, a friend or an enemy, and other such qualities that belong to the thing described but change as circumstances change.

Something may be beneficial at one time and harmful at another. A harmful thing may be left unprohibited when the harm resulting from prohibiting it would be greater—as would have been the case had wine been prohibited at the beginning of Islam. People had become deeply accustomed to it, and their faith had not yet grown strong enough for them to accept its prohibition. Nor had their faith and religious practice become so complete that no deficiency remained except that caused by drinking wine, which hindered them from remembering Allah and from prayer. For this reason, its prohibition came gradually.

Allah first revealed concerning it:

“They ask you about wine and gambling. Say, ‘In them is great sin and benefit for people. But their sin is greater than their benefit.’”

Then, after a group had drunk wine and prayed, and the imam had made a mistake in his recitation, He revealed the verse forbidding prayer while intoxicated. Then Allah revealed the verse prohibiting wine: