Al-W¥^idÏ's Asb¥b al-Nuz‰l - The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies ...

Chapter 5: Surah al-Ma’idah
this true’ They said: ‘It is, but we only meant to do good’. He said to them: ‘I was not commanded to do
those things, and your own selves have a right over you. Fast and break fast, stand in prayer at night and
sleep, for I stand in prayer at night but I also sleep; I sometimes fast and sometimes do not; I eat meat
and fat. And whoever shuns my practice is not of me’. Then he went out and gave a sermon to people in
which he said: ‘How come some people have forbidden sleeping with women, eating, wearing perfume,
sleeping and the desires of this world I am not commanding you to be priests or monks, for there is
no room in my religion for abstention from eating meat and sleeping with women, nor is there room
for adoption of monasteries. The wandering of my community consists of fasting and its monasticism
is Jihad. And worship Allah and do not associate anyone with Him; perform the greater and lesser pilgrimage,
establish the prayer, pay the poor-due, and fast the month of Ramadan. Those who were before
you perished because of their extremism; they made things hard on themselves and so Allah made it
hard on them. The remains of those people are in monasteries and cloisters’. Allah, exalted is He, then
revealed this verse, upon which they said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, What is to be done with the vows that
we have made’ This is because they had vowed to each other to carry out the things they agreed on. As
an answer, Allah, exalted is He, revealed (Allah will not take you to task for that which is unintentional in
your oaths) [2:225]”. 31
(O ye who believe! Strong drink and games of chance and idols and divining arrows are only an
infamy of Satan’s handiwork) [5:90].
Abu Sa‘id ibn Abi Bakr al-Mutawwi’i informed us> Abu ‘Amr Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Hiri> Ahmad
ibn ‘Ali al-Mawsili> Abu Khaythamah> al-Hasan ibn Musa> Zuhayr> Simak ibn Harb> Mus‘ab ibn Sa‘d
ibn Abi Waqqas> his father who said: “I went to a group of Emigrants and Helpers and they said to me:
‘Let us feed you and give you wine to drink’, this was before intoxicants were made unlawful. So I went
to a field where they had a roasted camel’s head and a barrel of wine. I ate and drank with them. Then I
mentioned the Emigrants and the Helpers and said: ‘The Emigrants are better than the Helpers’. One of
the man grabbed one of the jawbones [of the head we ate] and hit me with it, severing my nose in the
process. I went to the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, and informed him of what
had happened, and Allah, exalted is He, revealed about me the matter of intoxicants (drink and games of
chance)”. Narrated by Muslim from Abu Khaythamah.
‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Hamdan al-‘Adl informed us> Ahmad ibn Ja‘far ibn Malik> ‘Abd Allah ibn Ahmad
ibn Hanbal> his father> Khalaf ibn al-Walid> Isra’il> Abu Ishaq> Abu Maysarah> ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab
who made a supplication, saying: “O Allah, explain to us unequivocally the matter of intoxicants”, and so
the verse of Surah al-Baqarah was revealed (They question thee about strong drink and games of chance)
[2:219] ‘Umar was summoned and this verse was recited to him. But he prayed again: “O Allah, explain
to us unequivocally the matter of intoxicants”, and so the verse of Surah al-Nisa’ was revealed (O ye who
believe! Draw not near unto prayer when ye are drunken…). The crier of the Messenger of Allah, Allah
bless him and give him peace, used to say after announcing the beginning of any prayer: “Whoever is
drunk should not approach the prayer”. Again ‘Umar was summoned and this verse was recited to him.
Again he prayed: “O Allah, explain to us unequivocally the matter of intoxicants”. This verse was then
revealed (Strong drink and games of chance). ‘Umar was summoned and the verse was recited to him and
when it got to the words of Allah (Will ye then have done), upon which ‘Umar said: “We refrain from it,
we refrain from it”. 32
There were things that happened due to the consumption of intoxicants, before they were made lawful,
which the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, disliked. Of these is the story of ‘Ali
ibn Abi Talib and Hamzah, may Allah be well pleased with them. Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Muhammad
ibn Yahya informed us> Abu Bakr ibn Abi Khalid> Yusuf ibn Musa al-Marwazi> Ahmad ibn Salih>
‘Anbasah> Yusuf> Ibn Shihab> ‘Ali ibn al-Husayn> Husayn ibn ‘Ali who related that ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib
said: “I had an old camel mare which was my share from the booty of Badr. Before that, the Messenger
31
Tabari, :9-10; Qurtubi, :260.
32
Tabari, :33.
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