The ruling on one who drinks intoxicants and considers them lawful

The questioner : The Shaykh (peace and blessings be upon him) said that in some lands, many non-Muslims enter Islam, and then they are told, “Do not drink intoxicants, and do not do such and such of the forbidden things that you used to do.” Then they come to the mosques of the Muslims or mix with the Muslims, and they find the Muslims drinking intoxicants and mixing with all the things that they had left behind, so they return to their old ways. Nothing of their Islam appears. If he abandons the prayer, I tell him, “You have abandoned the prayer,” and he says, “So-and-so does not pray,” and the scholars say that abandoning the prayer is… and he drinks intoxicants, and so-and-so drank intoxicants, and his father is a Muslim, so the Shaykh’s matter is connected.

The Shaykh : Perhaps we should now seek the repentance of the Muslims.

The questioner : Yes? Yes?

The Shaykh : Yes, these who drink intoxicants and believe that it is lawful are disbelievers, there is no doubt about it. They are disbelievers because intoxicants are forbidden by the Book, the Sunnah, and the consensus of the Muslims, and no one has differed on their prohibition. So it is said to such people: either you give up intoxicants, or we will punish you with a discretionary punishment the first time, then the second time, then the third time, and on the fourth time we will kill them, even if he is a Muslim. The matter is not left alone. It is not contrary to the ruling: if he drinks, then the flogging. If he says it is easy and drinks, then the flogging is three times. If he drinks the fourth time, then put the sword at his neck.
Did you understand? This is the ruling. And Shaykh al-Islam (may Allah have mercy on him) said that if people do not stop without killing the drinker, then it is obligatory to kill him, no matter how many people are lacking in their actions now. He is demanded to return, and it is said, “It is not contrary to the ruling: you are now a Muslim and you committed these sins without considering them lawful, so you are like the rest of the Muslims.”