Alcohol and its Harms

Allah Almighty says: "O you who believe! Intoxicants (all kinds of alcoholic drinks), and gambling, and Al-Ansâb, and Al-Azlâm (arrows for seeking luck or decision) are abominations of Shaitân's (Satan's) handiwork. So avoid (strictly all) that (abominations) in order that you may be successful. * Shaitân (Satan) wants only to excite enmity and hatred between you with intoxicants (alcoholic drinks) and gambling, and hinder you from the remembrance of Allâh and from As-Salât (the prayer). So, will you not then abstain?" [Surat Al Ma'idah: 90-91].

Islam is able to protect humanity against the impacts of the Western civilization that disseminates its poisons, especially in connection to alcohol. Islam could achieve the goals which other man-made-laws by force could not achieve in terms of alcohol. By this Ayah and for the first time in history, drinking wine has been eliminated by Allah's Command. When the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) heard this Ayah, they said: O our Lord , we have given up drinking wine.

Because of the importance of this issue and its destructive effects, whether on individuals or communities, we shall speak about alcohol to provide adequate information on the risks resulting from drinking these poisons in terms of its harms to health.

Health harms of alcohol:

In fact, alcohol is poisonous substance from the biological side and should be treated as such from the medical view because it has many harms to health. From the pharmacological view, it is considered one of the poisons that affect the body. It affects badly all body organs and these negative impacts may show up directly and some of them may appear after many years, causing dangerous side effects that may finally cause death. Of the most important health harms resulting from wine drinking are the following:

1- Damages to the nervous system:

Alcohol affects mental ability, especially intelligence where it causes noticeable decrease in smartness. Moreover, it causes atrophy in some brain centers which can be detected by cross-sectional x ray of the brain. The impact of alcohol is direct to the brain cells and causes many diseases to a person, for instance: Dementia and Korsakoff's syndrome which are some symptoms resulting from  alcoholism, where an addict loses memory of nearby events. To compensate the mental vacuum, an addict begins to fabricate events because of his memory gap. Alcohol also causes brain illness that is represented in disorientation and memory impairment, in addition to a neuropathy in peripheral nerves that leads to numbness of fingers, in addition to other nerve ailments.

2- Damages to the digestive system:

Alcohol has multiple and very dangerous harms to the digestive system, starting from causing burns and increasing acidity in the esophagus, stomach, and duodenum, and causing inflammation in stomach lining and acute ulcer in stomach and duodenum  accompanied by acute hemorrhage. Alcohol may cause acute inflammation in pancreas when drinking a large amount of alcohol, which is dangerous to a person's life. The most important organs that are affected by alcohol in the digestive system are: The liver: We know that about 90% of alcohol that entered the body is decomposed in the liver. The repetition of this process causes fat cyst fat on liver cells, and ultimately causes cirrhosis of the liver which is a serious disease that could lead to death!

3 - Blood:

It is possible that drinking alcohol and addiction can cause anemia resulting from folic acid deficiency, in addition to alcohol is considered inhibiting for the activity of bone marrow.

4- Bones:

Recent studies have discovered that drinking alcohol can lead to osteoporosis because alcohol impedes body's absorption of calcium as it needs.

5 - Weight loss and the vulnerability of the body:

It was found that there is a constant and direct relationship between drinking alcohol and weight loss due to the indifference of an addict to have balanced and regular food, in addition to the impact of alcohol on the absorption of some important food products, such as: Vitamins and proteins, which consequently leads to the vulnerability of the body.