Definition & Ruling

**A. Definition:** **Linguistically:** Khamr is everything that covers (khamara) the intellect - i.e., obscures it - from any substance. **Legally:** Everything that intoxicates - whether juice or soaked, from grapes or otherwise, cooked or uncooked. **Sukr (intoxication):** Confusion of the intellect. **Muskir (intoxicant):** A drink that makes its consumer drunk. **Sakran (drunk):** The opposite of sober. --- **B. Ruling:** The ruling on Khamr is **prohibition (haram)**. Likewise all intoxicants - every intoxicant is khamr. It is not permissible to drink khamr, whether little or much. Drinking it is a **major sin**. Khamr is forbidden by the Quran, Sunnah, and Consensus. **Evidence from Quran:** Allah says: "O you who believe, indeed intoxicants, gambling, [sacrificing on] stone alters, and divining arrows are but defilement from the work of Satan, so avoid it that you may be successful" [Al-Ma'idah: 90]. The command to avoid it is evidence of its prohibition. **Evidence from Sunnah:** 'A'ishah رضي الله عنها reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Every drink that intoxicates is forbidden" [Bukhari & Muslim]. Ibn 'Umar رضي الله عنهما reported: "Every intoxicant is khamr, and every khamr is forbidden" [Muslim]. The hadiths on its prohibition and warning against it are very numerous, reaching the level of tawatur (mass transmission).