Ibn Qudāmah says in al-Mughnī: “No consensus can be claimed for a view that conflicts with the practice of the Prophet ﷺ, Abū Bakr, and ʿAlī. Therefore, ʿUmar’s increase is to be taken as a discretionary punishment (taʿzīr) that the ruler may impose whenever he deems it appropriate.”

With this remark he is replying to those who assert that the number eighty was fixed by the Companions’ consensus.

The ummah agrees unanimously that anyone who becomes intoxicated by any kind of intoxicant must receive the ḥadd, and it also agrees that whoever drinks fermented grape juice incurs the ḥadd even if he does not get drunk.

The vast majority of scholars, early and late, hold that anything whose large quantity intoxicates is unlawful in even small amounts, whatever type of intoxicant it may be—whether produced from grapes, dates, wheat, barley, or anything else. This view is reported from ʿUmar, ʿAlī, Ibn Masʿūd, Ibn ʿUmar, Abū Hurayrah, Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, Anas, and ʿĀʾishah —may Allah be pleased with them all.

It was likewise adopted by ʿAṭāʾ, Mujāhid, Ṭāwūs, al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad, Qatādah, and ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz.

This is also the position of the three imams—Aḥmad, al-Shāfiʿī, and Mālik—and their followers, and it was espoused by Abū Thawr and Isḥāq.

The scholars of Kūfah, however, maintain that a person who drinks an intoxicating beverage made from something other than grape juice is not subject to the ḥadd unless the drink reaches the stage of actually causing intoxication. When intoxication does occur, the earlier-mentioned consensus requires that the ḥadd be enforced.

Their only evidence is the claim that the term khamr, in its literal sense, applies solely to fermented grape juice, while other drinks fall under it only figuratively.

They cite certain hadiths for their view, but the scholars—among them al-Athram and Ibn al-Munzir—have judged those narrations defective and weak.

By contrast, the proofs relied upon by the majority of the ummah that every intoxicant is khamr and that both its small and large amounts are forbidden come from the Noble Qur’an, the sound Sunnah, and the clear Arabic language.

As for the Qur’an, it issues a general prohibition of khamr and forbids it outright.

Khamr is anything that befogs and veils the mind, whatever its source.

Regarding the Sunnah, it is authentically reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: “kullu muskir khamr wa kullu khamr ḥarām” (Every intoxicant is khamr, and every khamr is unlawful), and he ﷺ also said: “mā askara kathīruhu fa-qalīluhu ḥarām” (Whatever intoxicates in large quantities, its small quantity is likewise unlawful)—narrated by Abū Dāwūd and al-Athram.