Wine and its harms

Allah (may He be Exalted) 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 an abomination of Shaitân's (Satan) handiwork. So avoid (strictly all) that (abomination) 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 save humanity from the bad effects of Western civilization, which spreads its poisons, especially with regard to wine. Islam could achieve what other laws, which were imposed by force, could not have achieved in regard to wine. By this Ayah and for the first time in human history, the scourge of wine has been eliminated by the command of Allah (Glory be to Him) directly after the revelation of the Ayah. When the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) heard the Ayah, they said: We have stopped, we have stopped drinking, O our Lord.

Because of the importance and seriousness of the issue of wine and its destructive damages whether to individuals or communities, we shall speak about wine to provide adequate information on the risks of drinking these toxins on health.

Health harms of wine:

In fact, wine is a toxic substance from the biological standpoint, and should be treated that way because it has multiple dangerous health harms. From the pharmacological aspect, it is a toxic substance that affects badly the entire bodily organs. These negative effects appear immediately, whereas some of which appear later, even after years, causing serious complications that may end up with death.

Of the most important health harms caused by wine are the following:

1 - Damages of the nervous system:

Wine affects the mental powers of a person, especially smartness causing significant reduction and atrophy in some brain centers, which can be seen by CT of the brain. The direct influence of wine on the brain cells leads to the emergence of several serious diseases such as: Dementia and Korsakoff's syndrome which is one of the mental manifestations resulting from alcoholism; where an addict loses recent memory. To compensate that mental vacuum, an addict starts with fabricating events to cover his memory gaps. Wine causes encephalopathy which is represented in disorientation and memory impairment as well as neuropathy in limbs' nerves that leads to losing the sense of limbs, in addition to other neural matters.

2 - Damages of the digestive system:

Wine has multiple and serious damages on the digestive system, starting from causing burns and increasing acidity in the esophagus, stomach, and duodenum, and passing by causing acute inflammation in the stomach and severe ulcers in the stomach and duodenum that may be accompanied by severe hemorrhage. Wine causes acute inflammation of the pancreas when taking a large amount of wine which is dangerous to a person's life. Of the most important organs that are damaged in the digestive system due to wine is the liver; where we know that about 90% of the amount of wine that enters the body is decomposed in the liver. The repetition of decomposition process may cause sacculation in the liver cells which ultimately leads to the occurrence of liver cirrhosis; that is a serious disease which may end up with death!

3 - Blood

Addiction of alcohol may cause anemia because of the folic acid deficiency, moreover wine is an inhibitor for the activity of bone marrow.

4 - Bones:

Studies have found recently that drinking wine leads to osteoporosis because wine hinders the body's absorption of calcium which it needs.

5 - Weight loss and weakness of the body:

It was found that there is a constant and direct relationship between drinking alcohol and weight loss due to the lack of balanced and regular food and because alcohol affects some important nutrients such as vitamins and proteins leading to the weakness of the body immunity.