Drinking intoxicants
It is understood from the Islamic knowledge that the first one, who has made, drunk and spread wines between people, was Iblis.
I do not think that the great damage and loss that drinking wines causes are unknown by someone. Wine and every intoxicating drink attacks the mind and the mental power of man and gradually man turns into a vain creature.
Changing any blessing and gift that Allah has granted to man in order to continue his life and be bale to worship Allah and to serve people is a great treason to these great blessings. Drinking wine and any other intoxicant is a great treason, bad deed and heavy sin.
Islam has prohibited selling grapes, dates and any other blessing if the purpose is to make wine of them. The dealing on this is unlawful. This doing is one of the causes of deviation and it is a revolt against the orders of Allah the Almighty.
Making wine, carrying it, selling it, mediating in such prohibited dealings and any other activity concerning wine are all prohibited and they cause the wrath of Allah and lead man to the eternal torment in Hell on the Day of Resurrection.
“O you who believe! intoxicants and games of chance and (sacrificing to) stones set up and (dividing by) arrows are only an uncleanness of the Satan's work; shun it therefore that you may be successful. The Satan only desires to cause enmity and hatred to spring in your midst by means of intoxicants and games of chance, and to keep you off from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer. Will you then desist.” Qur'an, 5:90-91
The Prophet (s) has said, ‘Do not believe a drunkard when he talks, do not marry him (your daughters) when he proposes to engagement, do not visit him when he becomes ill, do not entrust him with any trust and do not attend his funerals when he dies!’[1]
‘A drunkard will be resurrected from his grave written between his eyes; desperate of the mercy of Allah.’[2]
‘The wine is the mother of vices and it is the greatest of the major sins.’[3]
‘Allah has cursed the wine, its presser, its planter, its drinker, its cupbearer, its seller, its buyer, the eater of its price, its carrier and the one to whom it is carried.’[4]
‘Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day (the Day of Resurrection) let him not sit at a table at which wine is being drunk.’[5]
Al-Mufadhdhal has narrated, ‘Once I asked Abu Abdullah (as-Sadiq) (s), ‘Why has Allah prohibited wine?’
He said, ‘Allah has prohibited wine for its influence and corruption because it causes a drunkard tremor, takes his light away, destroy his magnanimity, makes him dare to commit sins, to shed blood, to commit adultery and he may commit sexual rape on his close relatives (daughters or sisters) unknowingly. Wine does not give its drinker except evils.’[6]
Summary
We have discussed in the previous pages some of the bad morals and not all of them. In fact what we have mentioned is some examples of those vices that sometimes make man lose this life and suffer in the afterlife.
If man’s inward is polluted with the other part of vices, he will be changed into the worst of beasts and he will be resurrected on the Day of Resurrection with this animal morals. These vices are; imitating the foreigners, keeping on ignorance, corruption in generation and corruption in economics, heresy, pride, laziness and weakness, thieving, murdering, prohibited imitation, suspecting the others, scrupling, meanness and lowness, causing sedition, talebearing, polytheism, wide expectations, recklessly hastiness, hard-heartedness, stubbornness, vain arguing, singing, disagreement and separation, hatred, bad fanaticism, greediness, spying on the defects of people, stinginess, adultery, envy, being undutiful to one’s parents, wife, children and other people...etc.
If we want to discuss all these subjects in details by the help of the Qur’anic verses and noble traditions, we will need to write several books and volumes. These items must be understood in full by reviewing the interpretations of the Qur'an and the famous books of Hadith and ethics.
In this chapter we try to review in a hurry the previous subjects and matters to end our research with them.
In one of the chapters of this book we have talked about the material and moral blessings which Allah has granted to man and then the ground has been prepared for man to make use of these Divine blessings and gifts in the way of obedience and worship. We have seen that sins, crimes and disobediences are the results of using these Divine blessings and gifts in ways other than what Allah has created them for. Using these blessings in a way other than what Allah has determined leads man towards deviation and then he goes away from his Merciful Creator.
In another place, we have discussed the fact of repentance and turning to Allah and said that repentance and turning to Allah are to put the Divine blessings and gifts in their actual ways as Allah has determined. In other words, repentance is regretting on the one hand and repairing what has been destroyed before on the other hand and on a third hand to turn towards the future and to walk in the way of reforming oneself and the others.
In another place, we have referred to the fact that whatever man was polluted with sins he was just like a sick man where all the doors of cure and recovery were available near Allah and they all were open to that sick man so he should not despair and neglect his state. He should know and believe that Allah accepts repentance from His people and His great power and mercy include the state of the repentant sinful easily and save him from what he has been in and all his sins whatever great they are can be forgiven and covered by Allah. But a repentant sinful must pay all the rights of the others back to them and must pay all the legal dues mentioned in the Qur'an to their deservers. He must perform his missed obligations, repair his previous bad deeds and shortcomings and determine sincerely to give up sins and disobediences forever.
In an important part of this book, we have referred to the Qur’anic verses and noble traditions concerning the matter of repentance and showed in a special part the stories of the repentant persons especially that some of these stories have not been heard by people. And at the end of this book we have discussed the way of reforming the repentant with the help of the Qur’anic verses and the traditions of the Prophet (s) and the infallible imams (s) under forty titles of moral and Qur’anic concepts.
I think that the persons, who have involved in sins and disobediences, should read this book themselves or the preachers and speechers of Friday Prayer may show to the attendants of their meetings the summaries of the subjects mentioned in this book that they may be useful to the listeners and specially the sinful ones who want to repent and turn to Allah.
One, who is responsible for guiding people and instructing them, should not despair of his task or slacken in his duty. A preacher must be like the prophets and the saints who have been as kind fathers to the deviate people. They have treated them with kindness and love and considered them as their children. They have guided them to the path of good and benevolence and explained to them the Divine verdicts of lawful and unlawful things, human ideals and good manners in a sphere full of love, peace and respect. In this way they have armed themselves with patience and perseverance until they have carried out their aims.
The leader of the knowers, guardian of the lovers and commander of the believers Imam Ali (s) has confirmed to the guides, the preachers and (the spiritual doctors) not to despair of curing their patients.
The most important factor of attracting the Divine mercy in this life and in the afterlife is to love people, to treat the sinful kindly and mercifully and to bear pains and tiredness in order to attract them to the fort of repentance.
It has been narrated that once a man said to the Prophet (s), ‘I like my Lord to have mercy on me.’ The Prophet (s) said to him, ‘Have mercy on yourself and have mercy on the people of Allah and then Allah will have mercy on you!’[7]
From among the creatures of Allah there are the sinful persons who have been involved because of several reasons into sins and disobediences and they should not be driven away or treated rudely and harshly. One should treat them as if they were sick. The sick person, who asks us to cure him, really deserves to be treated kindly and leniently. We have to invite him and if he does not come, then we should go to him, talk to him with utmost kindness and leniency and show to him the dangerous effects of sins in this life and in the afterlife and that the mercy and care of Allah have not stopped for even a moment throughout his life. We remind him of that and encourage him that Allah may help him to repent and return to the path of the truth. Being patient and perseverant to guide a sinful person and to make him repent and turn to Allah is better than all the other deeds and its reward will be more than the reward of all the other good deeds.
Ameerul Mo'mineen (s) has said, ‘Once the messenger of Allah (s) sent me to Yemen and said to me, ‘O Ali, do not fight anyone until you invite him to believe. By Allah, if Allah guides a man at your hand, it will be better to you than all what the sun has shone and set on and you will be his guardian, O Ali.’[8]
O Allah, we have nothing to turn towards You with save the tears of our eyes and we have no weapon save supplication and no hope save expecting Your mercy! O Allah, make us succeed to achieve the real repentance and turning to You! Our Lord, nourish our life with benevolence, rightness, piety and worship, reform our state with servitude and obedience to You, keep the remain of our old safe from open and hidden sins and make our life and death as the life and the death of Muhammad and the progeny of Muhammad (s)!
