However, during the caliphate of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him) the Muslim conquests spread, many new people entered Islam, and the consumption of wine noticeably increased. ʿUmar—an exceedingly firm and decisive leader—wanted to impose a punishment on the wine-drinker that would be harsher and more deterrent. Yet, out of piety and caution, he convened the Companions who possessed sound judgment—not every Companion, for the common folk are unfit for such matters or for political decision-making. It is not for the masses to wag their tongues about the policies of the rulers: politics has its specialists, just as plates and cooking pots have theirs. Were political affairs to be chewed over by ordinary people, the world would be ruined, for the layman has neither knowledge nor mature intellect; his thinking does not reach beyond his own feet.

The Almighty alludes to this in His words: “Whenever there comes to them news concerning security or fear, they broadcast it; but had they referred it to the Messenger and to those in authority among them, those who can draw sound conclusions would have understood it” (Q. 4:83). This shows that the general public are not on a par with the people of authority, opinion, and consultation. Political discourse, therefore, is not a public pastime. Whoever seeks to make the masses partners with the rulers in their political decisions, thoughts, and strategies has strayed far from the guidance of the Companions, the Rightly Guided Caliphs, and the early generations of this ummah.

What matters here is that ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, in his resoluteness, gathered the men of sound judgment among the Companions and said in effect, “Wine-drinking has become widespread. When the religious restraint weakens, the state deterrent must be strengthened; if both restraints—the spiritual and the governmental—are weak, the ummah will be corrupted.” He then asked them what should be done. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf replied, “Commander of the Faithful, the lightest of the prescribed penalties is eighty lashes; therefore raise the punishment to eighty lashes.” In saying this, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān was alluding to the ḥadd for qadhf (slanderous accusation of fornication), for Allah the Exalted has said, “Those who accuse chaste women and then fail to produce four witnesses—flog them…” (Q. 24:4).