(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”.
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 of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, had given me an old camel mare from the quint (khums). And when I was going to marry Fatimah, I had an appointment with a goldsmith from Banu Qaynuqa‘ whom I wanted to travel with me to buy Bulrush (Idhkhir) from a goldsmith for my wedding ceremony. I went to gather some saddles, sacks and ropes — for my camels which were kneeled down close to a Helper’s room. When I came back, I found my two camels with their humps cut off, their haunches ripped open and their insides taken away. I could not believe what I saw, and asked: ‘Who did this?’ They said: ‘It was Hamzah ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib; he is now in the house drinking with some Helpers. They have a songstress who had sung:
O Hamzah, proceed to the old fat camels
Which are tied in the courtyard.
Put the knife to their throat
And, O Hamzah, smear blood on them.
And feed us from their slices, meat on skewer
attached together on glowing fire.
For you are, O Abu ‘Umarah, our hope
To relieve us from harm and affliction.
So when he heard this, he jumped to his sword, cut off the camels’ humps, ripped open their haunches and took away their insides’. I proceeded until I entered in on the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace. He had with him Zayd ibn Harithah. The Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, knew why I went to see him. He said: ‘What’s the matter with you?’ I said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, I have not seen anything like what I saw today. Hamzah attacked my camels, cut off their humps, ripped open their haunches and he is still drinking until now in a certain house’. The Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, called for his outer garment and walked off. Zayd ibn Harithah and I followed him. He proceeded until he arrived to the house where Hamzah was drinking. He asked permission to enter and permission was granted. They were all drunk. The Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, began reproaching Hamzah for what he did while Hamzah’s eyes were red from being completely drunk. Hamzah looked at the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace; then he stared at him, looked at his knees, then stared at his face and said: ‘Are you not but the slaves of my father?’ The Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, realised that he was very drunk. He stepped back, left the house and we left after him”. Narrated by Bukhari from Ahmad ibn Salih. This incident was among the reasons which made incumbent the revelation of forbidding intoxicants.
Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi , trans. Mokrane Guezzou