Short answer
Alcohol is haram because it clouds the mind, and Islam guards the mind. The Qur'an says intoxicants stir up enmity and hatred, and turn people from remembering God (﷾) and from prayer (5:91). It does not pretend drink has no benefit. It says the harm is greater (2:219). Today health experts find no safe level of drinking, and the World Health Organization counts about 2.6 million deaths from alcohol in 2019. The ban came in three stages, as a mercy, after the Prophet's (ﷺ) move to Medina. First the harm was named, then coming to prayer drunk was forbidden, and then all intoxicants (5:90). The Prophet (ﷺ) said every intoxicant is forbidden, not wine alone (Muslim 2003). If you drink, it is no barrier to becoming a Muslim. Faith comes first, Islam wipes out what came before it, and Allah (﷾) helps whoever turns to Him.
The harm outweighs the benefit
Wine and gambling hold some benefit, but their sin is greater.
Not at prayer while drunk
Believers must not come to prayer drunk, until they know what they are saying.
Avoid it completely
Intoxicants and gambling are Satan's work, sowing enmity and keeping people from prayer: keep away from them.
Every intoxicant
The Prophet (ﷺ) said every intoxicant is forbidden, not wine alone.
Full explanation
Stage one: the harm outweighs the benefit
The first ruling did not yet forbid. It answered a question about wine and gambling. It said that there is great sin in them and some benefit, but that the sin is greater. It does not pretend that people get nothing from drink. It weighs the benefit against the harm and gives the verdict. The World Health Organization's 2023 statement fits this verdict. It found no amount of alcohol that is safe for health.
“They ask thee concerning wine and gambling. Say: "In them is great sin, and some profit, for men; but the sin is greater than the profit." They ask thee how much they are to spend; Say: "What is beyond your needs." Thus doth Allah Make clear to you His Signs: In order that ye may consider-”
On 4 January 2023 the WHO Regional Office for Europe announced a WHO statement published in The Lancet Public Health: there is no safe amount of alcohol that does not affect health. Alcohol is classed as a Group 1 carcinogen, the highest risk group, which also includes asbestos, radiation and tobacco. It causes at least seven types of cancer. Current evidence cannot show a threshold below which its cancer effects do not start. No studies show that possible benefits of light and moderate drinking for heart disease and type 2 diabetes outweigh the cancer risk for individual drinkers.
Stage two: not at prayer while drunk
The next verse told believers not to come to prayer while drunk, until they know what they are saying. The Arabic word sukara means intoxicated. Yusuf Ali, a translator of the Qur'an, renders it "with a mind befogged". The prayers are spread through the day, so this already left little room for drinking.
“O ye who believe! Approach not prayers with a mind befogged, until ye can understand all that ye say,- nor in a state of ceremonial impurity (Except when travelling on the road), until after washing your whole body. If ye are ill, or on a journey, or one of you cometh from offices of nature, or ye have been in contact with women, and ye find no water, then take for yourselves clean sand or earth, and rub therewith your faces and hands. For Allah doth blot out sins and forgive again and again.”
Stage three: avoid it completely
The final verses call intoxicants and gambling, along with idol-stones and divining arrows, an abomination of Satan's work. They command believers to keep away from them so that they may prosper. They give the reason. Satan uses drink and gambling to stir up enmity and hatred among people. He also uses them to turn people from the remembrance of God (﷾) and from prayer. Muslim scholars add that whatever makes a person forget God (﷾) opens the door to other wrongs.
“O ye who believe! Intoxicants and gambling, (dedication of) stones, and (divination by) arrows, are an abomination,- of Satan's handwork: eschew such (abomination), that ye may prosper.”
“Satan's plan is (but) to excite enmity and hatred between you, with intoxicants and gambling, and hinder you from the remembrance of Allah, and from prayer: will ye not then abstain?”
Why it came in stages
The verses came one after another, some time apart. Each took a further step, and the last ended with the question "will ye not then abstain?" Aisha, the Prophet's (ﷺ) wife, explained the wisdom of this order. The early revelation spoke of Paradise and the Fire. Only once faith was settled did the rulings on lawful and unlawful come. Had the first command been to stop drinking, she said, people would have refused.
“Satan's plan is (but) to excite enmity and hatred between you, with intoxicants and gambling, and hinder you from the remembrance of Allah, and from prayer: will ye not then abstain?”
Aisha explains the order of revelation: the first passages spoke of Paradise and the Fire; only when people had come to Islam were the rulings on the lawful and the unlawful revealed. Had the first command been to stop drinking wine or committing adultery, she says, people would have refused to give them up.
The wine poured into the streets of Medina
Anas, a young companion of the Prophet (ﷺ), was serving drinks in the house of Abu Talha when the Prophet (ﷺ) had the ban announced. Anas was told to pour the wine away, and it flowed in the streets of Medina. The men he was serving did not ask a single question about it and never went back to it. Some then said that believers had been killed with wine still in them. A verse came saying there is no blame on believers for what they consumed before the ban.
Anas reports that he was serving drinks at the house of Abu Talha when the Prophet (ﷺ) had it announced that alcoholic drink was forbidden. Abu Talha told him to go out and pour the wine away, and it flowed in the streets of Madinah.
Anas was pouring drinks for Abu Talha and others when a man came with the news that wine had been forbidden. They told Anas to spill the pots, and they never asked about it or went back to it again.
“On those who believe and do deeds of righteousness there is no blame for what they ate (in the past), when they guard themselves from evil, and believe, and do deeds of righteousness,- (or) again, guard themselves from evil and believe,- (or) again, guard themselves from evil and do good. For Allah loveth those who do good.”
Every intoxicant, not only wine
The Prophet (ﷺ) said that every intoxicant is khamr, the word the Qur'an uses. He said that every intoxicant is forbidden. So the ruling covers beer, spirits and every other drink that intoxicates, whatever it is called or made from. Muslim scholars apply the same rule to drugs that intoxicate.
Ibn Umar reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) said every intoxicant is khamr (wine) and every intoxicant is forbidden, and that whoever drinks wine in this world and dies addicted to it, without repenting, will not drink it in the Hereafter.
Not only the drinker
Drink harms more than the one who drinks. The World Health Organization counts about 2.6 million deaths caused by alcohol in 2019. That year 298,000 people died in road crashes involving alcohol, and 156,000 of them died because of someone else's drinking. The WHO also links alcohol to violence between partners, sexual assault and suicide. This is the enmity and hatred, and the turning away from God (﷾), that the Qur'an named.
Worldwide, around 2.6 million deaths were caused by alcohol consumption in 2019. Alcohol plays a causal role in more than 200 diseases, injuries and other health conditions. It also harms others: of 298,000 deaths from alcohol-related road crashes in 2019, 156,000 were caused by someone else's drinking. Other harms include falls, drowning, burns, sexual assault, intimate partner violence and suicide.
“Satan's plan is (but) to excite enmity and hatred between you, with intoxicants and gambling, and hinder you from the remembrance of Allah, and from prayer: will ye not then abstain?”
Firm on the sin, merciful to the sinner
The ban did not mean that no Muslim ever drank again. In the lifetime of the Prophet (ﷺ) a man was punished more than once for drinking. When someone cursed him, the Prophet (ﷺ) forbade it, saying that the man loved God (﷾) and His Messenger. The law stood, and so did mercy toward the one who fell.
Umar reports that in the Prophet's (ﷺ) lifetime a man named Abdullah was lashed for drinking, and brought again on the same charge. When someone cursed him, the Prophet said not to curse him, because he loved Allah and His Messenger.
If you drink
Drinking is no barrier to becoming a Muslim, and you do not have to stop first. Islam wipes out what came before it. Many of the first Muslims had drunk wine all their lives. Faith settled in their hearts first, and then they left it, as Aisha explained. Leaving it is then part of your path. If you find it hard to stop, you need help, not scorn: the Prophet (ﷺ) forbade cursing a Muslim who had drunk, because he loved God (﷾) and His Messenger. And the Qur'an says to everyone who has wronged themselves: "Despair not of the Mercy of Allah: for Allah forgives all sins" (39:53).
Amr ibn al-As, near death, said that before Islam no one was more hateful to him than the Prophet (ﷺ), and he had wished to kill him. He told how he came to the Prophet to accept Islam. He asked the Prophet to stretch out his right hand so he could pledge, then drew his own hand back. Asked why, he said he wanted a condition: that he be forgiven. The Prophet asked whether he did not know that Islam wipes out everything that came before it.
Aisha explains the order of revelation: the first passages spoke of Paradise and the Fire; only when people had come to Islam were the rulings on the lawful and the unlawful revealed. Had the first command been to stop drinking wine or committing adultery, she says, people would have refused to give them up.
Umar reports that in the Prophet's (ﷺ) lifetime a man named Abdullah was lashed for drinking, and brought again on the same charge. When someone cursed him, the Prophet said not to curse him, because he loved Allah and His Messenger.
“Say: "O my Servants who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah: for Allah forgives all sins: for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”
The replies answered
World Health Organization, statement on alcohol (2023)
On 4 January 2023 the WHO Regional Office for Europe announced a WHO statement published in The Lancet Public Health: there is no safe amount of alcohol that does not affect health. Alcohol is classed as a Group 1 carcinogen, the highest risk group, which also includes asbestos, radiation and tobacco. It causes at least seven types of cancer. Current evidence cannot show a threshold below which its cancer effects do not start. No studies show that possible benefits of light and moderate drinking for heart disease and type 2 diabetes outweigh the cancer risk for individual drinkers.
Cited for
A little alcohol in moderation does no harm. Some studies even say light drinking is good for the heart.
The response
The World Health Organization's 2023 statement says there is no safe amount of alcohol for health. It notes that alcohol has long been classed with tobacco and asbestos as a known cause of cancer. It says no study has shown that a heart benefit from light drinking outweighs its cancer risk. The Qur'an never said drink brings no profit. It said the sin is greater than the profit (2:219). And its command is to avoid strong drink altogether, not to drink less of it (5:90). The Qur'an also names a harm no health study measures. Satan uses drink to stir up enmity and hatred, and to turn people from remembering God (﷾) and from prayer (5:91).
Where it lands — Any benefit of drink is outweighed by its harm, as 2:219 says, and the Qur'an's command is to avoid it.
Perspectives
The Islamic perspective
God (﷾) forbade intoxicants because they turn people from Him, from prayer and from one another. He brought the ban in stages as a mercy, and the Prophet (ﷺ) extended it to every intoxicant.
The Qur'an first said the sin of wine and gambling is greater than their benefit.
The Qur'an then forbade coming to prayer while intoxicated.
The Qur'an finally called intoxicants and gambling Satan's work and commanded believers to avoid them.
The Qur'an gives the reason. They stir enmity and hatred, and keep people from the remembrance of God (﷾) and from prayer.
The Prophet (ﷺ) said every intoxicant is khamr and every intoxicant is forbidden.
The gradual order of the ban was a mercy that let a people used to drinking give it up.
The Prophet (ﷺ) forbade cursing a Muslim punished for drinking, because he still loved God (﷾) and His Messenger.
The ban was announced, and the wine in Abu Talha's house was poured out. It flowed in the streets of Medina.
Those drinking at the time had the pots spilled and never asked about it or returned to it.