Is the punishment for the drinker of intoxicants necessarily flogging, or can he be imprisoned or fined?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : The rights of the two [types of punishment] allow for a fine or imprisonment. Or a fine, or a fine, meaning it could be one hundred pounds or one thousand riyals. A fine.
The Shaykh : Yes, meaning is he punished by flogging or by a fine? He is not punished by flogging; it must be flogging.
The questioner : And neither of them causes harm.
The Shaykh : It is valid if we say that it is not a fixed punishment (hadd) but a discretionary punishment. If the one in authority sees that he should be fined, beaten, imprisoned, or fined, there is no harm in that, because for some people, if they are flogged once in front of people, it becomes severe for them. But if a million riyals are taken from him, it does not matter to him. And for some people, it is the opposite.
The Shaykh : Yes, meaning is he punished by flogging or by a fine? He is not punished by flogging; it must be flogging.
The questioner : And neither of them causes harm.
The Shaykh : It is valid if we say that it is not a fixed punishment (hadd) but a discretionary punishment. If the one in authority sees that he should be fined, beaten, imprisoned, or fined, there is no harm in that, because for some people, if they are flogged once in front of people, it becomes severe for them. But if a million riyals are taken from him, it does not matter to him. And for some people, it is the opposite.
Source
قناة «فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين»، 2120 - 4600 هل عقوبة شارب الخمر لابد أن تكون الجلد أم يمكن أن يسجن أو يغرم؟ ابن عثيمين — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.