Anyone who drinks wine Allaah will not accept prayer from him for 40 days

2-12-2008 | IslamWeb

Question:

is it true that a muslim who drinks alcohol cant offer prayers for 40 days. please provide some more details abt the issue.

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

 

The statement that a person who drinks intoxicants should not pray for forty days is not correct; rather, such a person is obliged to repent to Allaah and perform the prayer at its prescribed fixed time because he should not commit the sin of abandoning the prayer in addition to the sin of consuming intoxicants.

The religious text that is reported about a person who consumes intoxicants is that his prayer is not accepted for forty days as we clarified in Fatwa 86328.

The meaning is that he has no reward for performing the prayer (for all this period) even though by performing it he is acquitted of it and he is not obliged to make it up.

That is because every act of worship is related to two things: its reward and being acquitted of it. Therefore, a person who consumes intoxicants is not rewarded for his prayer during the entire period mentioned in the narration, but by performing it he is acquitted of it, which means that he is not required to make it up. Hence, the meaning of the narration is not that he is allowed to abandon the prayer for 40 days. Rather, some jurists stated that the person who drank intoxicants –and every consumer of a forbidden food or drink –is obliged to vomit it as long as it is in his stomach before digestion. However, some other jurists stated that it is only desirable for him to do so but it is not an obligation.

Allaah Knows best.