struck him with his sandal. No fixed number was stipulated, and matters remained that way.

Under the caliphate of Abu Bakr, the punishment came to be reckoned at roughly forty lashes. During ʿUmar’s rule the ranks of those entering Islam swelled, and among them were people whose conversion lacked real desire; consequently, wine-drinking spread in his time—may Allah be pleased with him. When he saw how common it had become, he consulted the Companions. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf—may Allah be pleased with him—said, “The lightest of the prescribed penalties is eighty lashes, which is the punishment for slander.” So ʿUmar—may Allah be pleased with him—raised the penalty for drinking wine to eighty lashes.

This shows that when a person commits a sin and is punished for it in this life, we should not beseech Allah to disgrace or shame him; instead, we ask Allah to guide him and to forgive him. Allah is the One who grants success.