Wine (khamr) refers to anything that intoxicates. Intoxication means that the mind becomes absent because of overwhelming pleasure. At times the mind may be lost through medicine, such as anesthesia—that is not intoxication. Sometimes it is lost through fainting. Other times it is lost through drunkenness, which is the covering of the intellect accompanied by pleasure and euphoria. Hence the drunkard—Allah’s refuge is sought—imagines himself to be a king, as the poet said:

We drink it, and it leaves us feeling like kings …

The same occurred with Ḥamzah ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, the Prophet’s uncle, when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ once came to him—before wine had been prohibited—and found him tipsy. The Prophet admonished him, whereupon Ḥamzah retorted, “Are you anything but the slaves of my father?” He said this to the Messenger ﷺ even though he was among the people who most revered him; but he was drunk.

In short, drunkenness is the covering of the mind in a state of pleasure and exhilaration.

Therefore, when this wine-drinker was brought to the Prophet ﷺ, he said, “Beat him.”

Abu Hurayrah continues: “Some of us struck him with our hands, some with a whip, and some with their sandals. The Prophet ﷺ did not set a specific number of lashes. When the man left, one of the people said to him, ‘May Allah disgrace you!’ The Prophet ﷺ said, ‘Do not help Satan against him,’ for ‘disgrace’ means shame and humiliation. When you say to someone, ‘May Allah disgrace you,’ you are asking Allah to debase and expose him, thereby aiding Satan against him.

This ḥadīth shows that the punishment for drinking wine has no fixed measure. The Prophet ﷺ prescribed no set limit and did not count the blows: each person struck with whatever was at hand—one with his hand, another with the edge of his garment, another with his staff, and still another