It is prohibited by the Qur’an, the Sunnah, and the unanimous consensus of the Muslim community.

1. The Qur’an: Allah, Exalted is He, says, “O you who believe! Wine, gambling, sacrificial stones, and divining arrows are nothing but an abomination from Satan’s handiwork. So avoid them that you may succeed” (5:90). In this verse He pairs it with idol-worship, the greatest form of polytheism against Allah.

2. The Sunnah: the prophetic reports are numerous. Among them is the ḥadith recorded by Muslim: “Every intoxicant is khamr, and every khamr is forbidden.” The ummah is unanimous in declaring it unlawful.

Legislative wisdom behind the ban: this is not the place to list every harm we have learned it produces; Allah’s own words suffice: “Satan only seeks to sow enmity and hatred among you through wine and gambling, and to hinder you from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer. Will you not then desist?” (5:91). Thus He describes it as the cause of every evil and a barrier to every good.

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Khamr is the mother of abominations,” making it the root and foundation of all vice and foulness.

Its religious, moral, and intellectual harms need no detailed explanation. As for bodily harm, physicians unanimously agree that it is a cause of many grave and intractable diseases.

For these reasons the Wise Lawgiver has forbidden it, and the tally of evils and catastrophes brought on by this heinous crime is long and difficult to exhaust. Were the destruction of reason its only effect, that alone would justify its prohibition. How, then, can anyone drink this sinful substance that annihilates his intellect, leaving him a spectacle at which children laugh and driving him to act like a madman?

And this is but one of its maladies—how could any rational person be content with it?

Because of its immense danger and manifold harm, governments in the United States and elsewhere have waged war against it. Yet many people do not comprehend: you see them rushing toward it, and through it they squander their minds, their faith, their honour, their wealth, their dignity, and their health. Indeed, we belong to Allah and to Him we shall return.

Hadith 353
Anas ibn Mālik reported that the Prophet ﷺ was brought a man who had drunk wine, so he flogged him with palm branches, about forty lashes. He added, “Abu Bakr did the same, but when ʿUmar became caliph he consulted the people. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf said, ‘The lightest of the prescribed penalties is eighty.’ So ʿUmar ordered that for him.” (1)