The ruling on specifying the number of lashes for the one who drinks intoxicants
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, you stated that the hadd (fixed punishment) is a penalty prescribed by the Shari'ah, meaning by Allah or His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and therefore no one can exceed it. This raises a question regarding the Companions' independent legal reasoning (ijtihad) concerning the number of lashes for the drinker. Should we say that the punishment for the drinker is not a hadd, but rather falls under the category of discretionary punishment (ta'zir), varying according to what the one in authority (wali al-amr) deems appropriate?
Answer:
The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did not specify a fixed limit for the punishment of the one who shaves his beard. Rather, he was flogged approximately forty times. This is the statement of the narrator; the Messenger did not say, "Flog him forty times." The narrator said, "approximately forty times." Thus, the Messenger did not specify a clear limit, as Allah specified for the fornicator. Allah set the limit for the fornicator at[An-Nur 24:2] one thousand. [An-Nur 24:4] This limit is not permissible to exceed. As for the one who shaves his beard, no clear limit was specified; rather, the narrator said, "approximately forty times."
Honorable Shaykh, you stated that the hadd (fixed punishment) is a penalty prescribed by the Shari'ah, meaning by Allah or His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and therefore no one can exceed it. This raises a question regarding the Companions' independent legal reasoning (ijtihad) concerning the number of lashes for the drinker. Should we say that the punishment for the drinker is not a hadd, but rather falls under the category of discretionary punishment (ta'zir), varying according to what the one in authority (wali al-amr) deems appropriate?
Answer:
The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did not specify a fixed limit for the punishment of the one who shaves his beard. Rather, he was flogged approximately forty times. This is the statement of the narrator; the Messenger did not say, "Flog him forty times." The narrator said, "approximately forty times." Thus, the Messenger did not specify a clear limit, as Allah specified for the fornicator. Allah set the limit for the fornicator at
or [unmarried] man found guilty of sexual intercourse - lash each one of them with a hundred
وَالزَّانِي فَاجْلِدُوا كُلَّ وَاحِدٍ مِّنْهُمَا مِائَةَAnd those who accuse chaste women and then do not produce four witnesses - lash them with eighty lashes
وَالَّذِينَ يَرْمُونَ الْمُحْصَنَاتِ ثُمَّ لَمْ يَأْتُوا بِأَرْبَعَةِ شُهَدَاءَ فَاجْلِدُوهُمْ ثَمَانِينَ جَلْدَةً
Source
حد شرب الخمر — alfawzan.live
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.