Life-of-Muhammad

74Life of Muhammad sathat when the revelation making drink unlawful wasreceived, the Prophet sa sent for a Companion andordered him to proclaim the new command in thestreets of Medina. In the house of an Ansari (a Muslim ofMedina) a drinking party was going on. Many personshad been invited and cups of wine were being served.One large pot had been drunk and a second one wasgoing to be broached. Many had lost their senses, andmany more were on the way to lose them. In thiscondition they heard some one proclaim that drinkinghad been forbidden by the Prophet sa under a commandof God. One of the party stood up and said, "It looks likea proclamation against drinking; let us find out if this isso." Another stood up, struck the earthen pot full ofwine with his staff, broke it to pieces and said, "Firstobey, then inquire. It is enough that we have heard ofsuch a proclamation. It is not meet that we should go ondrinking while we make inquiries. It is rather our dutyto let the wine flow in the street and then inquire aboutthe proclamation" (Bukhari and Muslim, Kitab al-Ashriba). This Muslim was right. For, if drinking hadbeen forbidden, they would have been guilty of anoffence, had they gone on drinking on the other hand, ifdrinking had not been forbidden, they would not losemuch if for once they should let the wine in their potsflow into the streets. Drinking disappeared from theentire Muslim society after this proclamation. No specialeffort or campaign was needed to bring about thisrevolutionary change. Muslims who heard thiscommand and witnessed the ready response with whichit was received lived up to seventy or eighty years. Nocase is known of any Muslim who, having heard of thisprohibition, showed the weakness of offending againstit. If there was any such case, it must have been of onewho did not have the chance to come under the directinfluence of the Prophet sa . Compare with this theprohibition movement of America and of the efforts topromote temperance which have been made for so manyyears in Europe. In the one case a simple proclamation