The ape said, "The greedy, is just like someone who drunk after drinking wine, forgets everything, doesn't care about anyone. Wine is the mother of all evils, it clouds the mind, wastes money, causes headaches, tastes foul, and is an abomination of the Shaytaan’s handiwork. It creates enmity and hatred between people, prevents them from remembering Allah and praying, calls them to zina. It takes away pride and gheerah, and generates shame, regret and disgrace, and puts the drinker in the same category as the most imperfect type of people, namely those who are insane. It leads to the disclosure of secrets and exposure of faults. It encourages people to commit sins and evil actions. It makes people transgress sacred limits and the one who is addicted to it is like an idol-worshipper. That's why, drinking alcohol is a major sin.
Allah has warned us against it, in His Book, He says,
Narrated Abdullah ibn Umar, radhiyallahu 'anhu, that the Prophet (ﷺ) said,يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِنَّمَا الْخَمْرُ وَالْمَيْسِرُ وَالأنْصَابُ وَالأزْلامُ رِجْسٌ مِنْ عَمَلِ الشَّيْطَانِ فَاجْتَنِبُوهُ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ"O you who have believed, indeed, intoxicants, gambling, [sacrificing on] stone alters [to other than Allah ], and divining arrows are but defilement from the work of Satan, so avoid it that you may be successful." - [QS.5:90]
It was narrated from Abu Hurairah, radhiyallahu 'anhu, that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said,لَعَنَ اللَّهُ الْخَمْرَ وَشَارِبَهَا وَسَاقِيَهَا وَبَائِعَهَا وَمُبْتَاعَهَا وَعَاصِرَهَا وَمُعْتَصِرَهَا وَحَامِلَهَا وَالْمَحْمُولَةَ إِلَيْهِ"Allah has cursed wine, its drinker, its server, its seller, its buyer, its presser, the one for whom it is pressed, the one who conveys it, and the one to whom it is conveyed." - [Sunan Abi Dawud; Sahih by Al-Albani]
It was narrated from Abu Darda’ that the Prophet (ﷺ) said,مُدْمِنُ الْخَمْرِ كَعَابِدِ وَثَنٍ“The one who is addicted to wine is like one who worships idols.” - [Sunan Ibn Majah; Hasan by Al-Albani]
لاَ يَدْخُلُ الْجَنَّةَ مُدْمِنُ خَمْرٍ“No one who is addicted to wine will enter Paradise.” - [Sunan Ibn Majah; Sahih by Al-Albani]It was narrated from Abu Bakr bin 'Abdur-Rahman bin Al-Harith that his father said, "I heard 'Uthman, radhiyallahu 'anhu, said, 'Avoid Khamr for it is the mother of all evils. There was a man among those who came before you who was a devoted worshipper. An immoral woman fell in love with him. She sent her slave girl to him, saying, 'We are calling you to bear witness. So he set out with her slave girl, and every time he entered a door, she locked it behind him, until he reached a beautiful woman who has with her a boy and a vessel of wine.' She said, 'By Allah, I did not call you to bear witness, rather I called you to have intercourse with me, or to drink a cup of this wine, or to kill this boy.' He said, 'Pour me a cup of this wine.' So she poured him a cup. He said, 'Give me more.' And soon he had intercourse with her and killed the boy. So avoid Khamr, for by Allah faith and addiction to Khamr cannot coexist, but one of them will soon expel the other." - [Sunan An-Nasa'i; Sahih by Al-Albani]Narrated Abdullah Ibn Abbas, the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said,
كُلُّ مُخَمِّرٍ خَمْرٌ وَكُلُّ مُسْكِرٍ حَرَامٌ وَمَنْ شَرِبَ مُسْكِرًا بُخِسَتْ صَلاَتُهُ أَرْبَعِينَ صَبَاحًا فَإِنْ تَابَ تَابَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ فَإِنْ عَادَ الرَّابِعَةَ كَانَ حَقًّا عَلَى اللَّهِ أَنْ يَسْقِيَهُ مِنْ طِينَةِ الْخَبَالِ " . قِيلَ وَمَا طِينَةُ الْخَبَالِ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ قَالَ " صَدِيدُ أَهْلِ النَّارِ وَمَنْ سَقَاهُ صَغِيرًا لاَ يَعْرِفُ حَلاَلَهُ مِنْ حَرَامِهِ كَانَ حَقًّا عَلَى اللَّهِ أَنْ يَسْقِيَهُ مِنْ طِينَةِ الْخَبَالِ "
"Every intoxicant is khamr (wine) and every intoxicant is forbidden. If anyone drinks wine, Allah will not accept prayer from him for forty days, but if he repents, Allah will accept his repentance. If he repeats it a fourth time, it is binding on Allah that He will give him tinat al-khabal to drink."
He was asked, "What is tinat al-khabal, Messenger of Allah?" He replied, "Discharge of wounds, flowing from the inhabitants of Hell. If anyone serves it to a minor who does not distinguish between the lawful and the unlawful, it is binding on Allah that He will give him to drink the discharge of wounds, flowing from the inhabitants of Hell." - [Sunan Abi Dawud; Sahih by Al-Albani]Imam Al-nawawi said, "With regard to his prayer not being accepted, what this means is that he will not be rewarded for it, even though it is valid, and he does not have to repeat it."How many wars has it started, how many rich men has it made poor, how many noble people has it brought low, how many blessings has it destroyed, how many disasters has it caused? How often has it created division between man and wife? How much regret has it generated and how many tears has it caused to flow? How often has it closed the doors of goodness to the drinker and opened the doors of evil to him? How often has it brought about calamity and hastened death? How much trouble has it brought to the one who drinks it? It is the source of sin, the key to evil; it takes away blessings and brings calamity. Even if it did not have all these evil consequences, the fact that one cannot have both the wine of this world and the wine of Paradise is sufficient deterrent. And the evil consequences of alcohol are many time more than mentioned.
But, I'm not going to tell you any further about wine or alcohol, but I'm going to tell you about a story of a greedy trader who traded in wine, the worst of the unlawful things. His desire to earn more in a little time induced him to adulterate wine with water.
Abu Hurayrah, radhiyallahu 'anhu, reported the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) as saying that a man sold wine on a shop. (He was so greedy that he was not satisfied with his unlawful earnings through wine and so engaged in cheating.) He mixed water into the wine. He had a monkey with him who picked up his purse and climbed up the top of the mast. There, he began to throw a dinar into the sea and a dinar into the ship until he had divided them into two parts (half of it went into the sea because it was income from the adulterated and the man had no right over it). [Al-Harith, Bayhaqi, Ahmad; Sahih by Al-Albani]We must know that wine was not disallowed by some religions before Islam, and it was not forbidden in the beginning in Islam as well. Hence, we should not wonder why this man was blamed for adulteration and not for dealing in wine. Or, we should not ask why the Hadith has not questioned him for selling wine. We do not get the impression from the Hadith that there is nothing wrong in dealing in wine.
We must also remember that this is a story of one of the earlier people. Wine is unlawful, and it is a grave sin in the Shari'ah of our beloved Prophet (ﷺ) to have to do anything with wine including drinking it, serving it, selling it, buying .it, brewing it, preparing it or abetting and helping in these things.
Anyway, that man, used to sell wine mixed with water and he carried on his business on a ship. He had a monkey with him who observed his conduct. One day, he suddenly picked up his master's purse and climbed up the top of the mast of the ship so that no one could get hold of him. He opened the purse and threw one dinar into the sea and one into the ship. In this way, he threw away half of the money into the sea and half of it in the ship for the trader. He told him, as it were, that the money that was not his was returned to the sea.
Then the ape said, "O my brothers and sisters, the main lesson of the Hadith teaches us is that cheating and adulteration are wrong acts and are disallowed. It is unlawful to cheat anyone and the income therefrom is unlawful too. The Shari'ah has termed adulteration as the worst of sins.
Reference :It was narrated that Abu Hurairah said that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) passed by a man who was selling food. He put his hand in it and saw that there was something wrong with it. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said,Unfortunately, our Muslim brothers are much involved in this sin. Greedy people, bereft of human qualities, adulterate every necessity of life-milk, honey, ghee (clarified butter), and so on. They also mix impurities in medicine. These people neglect the Hereafter and they sort of worship money. These filthy people play a horrible game with our society very boldly for there is no one to stop them. These people are murderers. So, it is a grave sin to sell adulterated items just as it is sinful to adulterate.لَيْسَ مِنَّا مَنْ غَشَّ'He is not one of us who cheats."' - [Sunan Ibn Majah; Sahih]
The Hadith also reveals amazing secrets of the animals. Allah has given the animals too some intellect and ability to understand some things. The story shows that the monkey understood what was happening and could dispense justice. While Allah will punish the wrong-doer in the Hereafter, sometimes He also gives him some punishment in this world. The problems and difficulties a man faces in this world are the result of his wrong-doing. Allah punished the trader in our story through his own monkey who threw away half his earnings in the sea.
We also learn from this case that if anyone has accumulated unlawful earnings, then he must not use it, but rather give it to a needy person. The Shari'ah commands us in the first instance to desist from making unlawful earnings but if any of it comes in our hands then we must no use it. It is better to give that money to a deserving person. The Ulama should be consulted to determine who the deserving person is. And Allah knows best."
إِنَّ الإنْسَانَ لِرَبِّهِ لَكَنُودٌ"Indeed mankind, to his Rabb, is ungrateful." - [QS.100:6]
- Maulana Muhammad Zakaria Iqbal, Stories from the Hadith, Darul Isha'at.
