Hadith 391

ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbbās (Allah be pleased with them both) said: News reached ʿUmar that a certain man had sold wine. Thereupon he declared, “May Allah fight So-and-so! Does he not know that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘May Allah fight the Jews. When animal fat was prohibited to them, they rendered it, then sold it.’”

Overall meaning:
Umar ibn al-Khattab (Allah be pleased with him) was informed that a man had tried to profit from wine without drinking it by putting it up for sale. Such a scheme is a transparent, forbidden ruse. Therefore ʿUmar invoked against him the same kind of supplication the Prophet ﷺ made against the Jews who practiced legal trickery, saying in effect: “May Allah fight him—does he not realize that resorting to stratagems is unlawful? It is nothing but deception toward Allah and His Messenger.” The Prophet ﷺ had said: “May Allah fight the Jews. When Allah forbade them animal fat, they sought to benefit from it through a trick: they altered the fat’s form, melted it, then sold it and pocketed the price, claiming—deceitfully—‘We did not eat the fat that was forbidden to us.’ Yet they were only trying to deceive Allah, and Allah is the One who foils their deception.”

Lessons derived from the hadith:
1- Dealing in wine is forbidden in every respect—selling, buying, laboring for it, or assisting with it in any manner whatsoever.
2- Legal stratagems (ḥiyal) are prohibited; once Allah has forbidden wine, He has likewise forbidden its price, which serves as a means to it.
3- Whoever sells it imitates the Jews who, when animal fat was proscribed, melted it, sold it, and consumed its proceeds, all as a trick and a deception.
4- Whenever the substance itself is prohibited, its price is likewise prohibited; it is impermissible to obtain it through any avenue. Means take on the rulings of their ends, a useful legal maxim.