and do righteous deeds concerning what they consumed, provided they fear Allah, believe, and do righteous deeds’—to the end of the verse.

[Surah al-Mā'idah: 93]

And I am among the earliest Emigrants, one of those who took part in Badr and Uhud.”

ʿUmar said, “Answer the man,” but they remained silent. He then said to Ibn ʿAbbās, “Answer him.”

Ibn ʿAbbās replied, “Allah revealed it as an exoneration for those who had gone before—those who drank it before it was prohibited—and He revealed:

‘Intoxicants, gambling, idolatrous altars, and divining arrows are but defilement from the work of Satan, so avoid it.’

[Surah al-Mā'idah: 90]

This was proof(1) against the people.”

ʿUmar then asked what the prescribed punishment for it should be. ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib said, “When a man drinks, he raves; and when he raves, he makes false accusations. So give him eighty lashes.”(2) Thus, ʿUmar administered eighty lashes. This report indicates that ʿAlī advised eighty lashes, but there is reason to question it.

For it is authentically established that ʿAlī administered forty lashes in the presence of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān when he flogged al-Walīd ibn ʿUqbah, and that he attributed the eighty lashes to ʿUmar. It is also authentically established that ʿAbd al-Rahmān ibn ʿAwf advised eighty lashes.(3) Thus, administering eighty lashes was not something ʿUmar learned from ʿAlī. It has also been reported that ʿAlī administered eighty lashes during his own caliphate, which shows that he would sometimes administer forty lashes and sometimes eighty.

It is reported that ʿAlī said, “Were I to administer a prescribed punishment to someone and he died as a result, I would harbor no misgivings—except in the case of one punished for drinking wine. [For if he] died,(4) I would pay his blood money, because the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—did not prescribe it for us.”(5)