ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb—may Allah be pleased with him—said: “The prohibition of khamr was revealed while it was being made from grapes, dates, honey, wheat, and barley; and khamr is anything that clouds the mind.” Agreed upon.
As for the linguistic evidence, the author of al-Qāmūs states: “Khamr is that which intoxicates when pressed from grapes, or the term may be taken in a broader, general sense.” The wider application is the sounder view, because khamr was declared unlawful when no grape-wine even existed in Medina; the people’s drink at that time was prepared from unripe dates and dates.
Al-Khaṭṭābī said: “Some claim that the Arabs recognize no khamr except that derived from grapes. We reply: The Companions who called beverages not made from grapes ‘khamr’ were eloquent Arabs; had the usage been unsound they would never have employed it.”
Among the finest words transmitted from the scholars on this issue are those of al-Qurṭubī: “The many authentic hadiths narrated by Anas and others refute the view of the Kufans who assert that khamr exists only in grape wine and that what is produced from other substances is neither called khamr nor included under its ruling.
“This opinion runs contrary to the Arabic language, to the sound Sunnah, and to the understanding of the Companions. When the prohibition of khamr was revealed, they understood the command to avoid it as a ban on every intoxicant. They drew no distinction between what is produced from grapes and what is produced from anything else; rather, they treated them alike and forbade every beverage whose kind is intoxicating.
“They did not hesitate, request further clarification, or find the matter ambiguous; instead, they immediately poured out even those drinks that were not made from grape juice—although they were masters of the language and the Quran had been revealed in their tongue. Had there been any doubt in their minds, they would have refrained from pouring it away until they had sought explanation and ascertained the prohibition.”
Al-Qurṭubī then cited the aforementioned report from ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb—may Allah be pleased with him.
This is an excellent analysis that removes the doubts of those who disagree, and Allah is the One who grants success.
Chapter: Discretionary Punishments (taʿzīr) (1)
Linguistically, taʿzīr is a verbal noun from ʿazzara; the root conveys the sense of preventing, and the term was adopted because the punishment prevents a person from committing sin.
Legally, it denotes disciplinary action for an offense for which there is neither a fixed ḥadd nor an expiation—such as deriving sexual pleasure from a woman short of intercourse, theft from an unsecured place, slander that does not reach the level of accusing someone of fornication, and the many other acts of disobedience for which no specific corporal penalty has been prescribed.
By contrast, offenses that do carry a precisely defined ḥadd are few and limited, and, Allah willing, we shall soon discuss the extent of this punishment and the scholarly disagreement concerning it.