SHE HAD TRUE FAITH
Abu Baseer was once in the company of an Imam when a woman came and said to the Imam, "I have come to ask a question. I am ill. Physicians in Iraq have told me to take liquor. Now I want to know what to do in such circumstances?" The Imam asked her, "Why don't you drink what the doctors have prescribed for you?"
She replied, "As I am your follower, I shall obey what you say. If you permit me, I shall drink it; if not, I shall keep away from it; so that if I am asked by the Almighty Allah on the Day of Judgement why I did so, I shall reply that I followed the instructions of the Imam of the day."
The Imam turned to Abu Baseer and said: "O Abu Baseer. Did you listen to what this woman has to say? Are you not moved by her faith? Inspite of her illness, she is refraining from taking liquor without the Imam's permission."
The Imam then turned to the woman and said, "By Allah, I do not permit you to drink. If you do so, you shall be sorry when your soul reaches your throat (that is at the time of death)".
So saying the Imam pointed at her throat; and asked her three times if she understood what he had said. The woman nodded her head.
One of the things which Islam has strongly forbidden is the taking of any intoxicating drink, like beer, wine. They are harmful to the body and mind. Under their influence one loses one's senses and is apt to commit criminal acts. We read of fatal accidents and crimes committed because of drinks.
Even trading in liquor and sitting in bars where people are drinking are also forbidden in Islam so that there is no temptation in the way of people to taking them.
The Noble Quran says, "O Believers, Intoxicants and games of chance, idols and divining arrows, are abominations devised by Satan. Avoid them, so that you may prosper. Satan desires to stir up enmity and hatred among you by means of intoxicants and gambling, and to keep you from the remembrance of Allah and from your prayers. Will you not abstain from them?" (Chapter 5, Verses 90, 91)
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