The narrator says: These verses were mentioned to Messenger of Allah
(s.a.w.a.). He set out in fury, his robe dragging on the ground till he reached that
man. When he saw His Eminence (s.a.w.a.) that he was having something in his
hand and he raised it to hit him, he said: “I seek Allah’s refuge from the fury of
Allah and His Messenger. I swear by God, I will never again drink liquor.”
Thus, Almighty Allah revealed the verse of prohibition:
لَا يُكَلِّفُ اللَّهُ نَفْسًا إِلَّا وُسْعَهَا
“O you who believe! intoxicants and games of chance and
(sacrificing to) stones set up and (dividing by) arrows are only
an uncleanness, the Shaitan’s work; shun it therefore that you
may be successful.”1
Till the words of Almighty Allah:
لَا يُكَلِّفُ اللَّهُ نَفْسًا إِلَّا وُسْعَهَا
“Will you then desist?”2
At time Umar bin Khattab said: I give up! I give up!3
Ibne Hajar says in Fathul Bari4 and Aini in Umdatul Qari:5
“One of the rare and unlikely traditional reports is one, which Ibne Marduya
has mentioned in his Tafseer, through the channels of Isa bin Tahman6 from Anas
that: Abu Bakr and Umar were among those (who were drinking liquor in the
house of Abu Talha). This traditional report, in spite of the fact that its chains of
narrators is strong, even then it is deniable and I regard it to be invalid. Abu
Nuaim in Hilya7 in the biography of Shoba has narrated from tradition of Ayesha
that she said: “Abu Bakr made liquor unlawful for himself and he did not drink it
during the period of Jahiliyya and during Islam.” So, it is possible that if the
tradition of Ibne Marduya is correct: Abu Bakr and Umar must had gone there to
meet Abu Talha, but they did not join in drinking.8 Then I found this report from
Bazzaz from another channel from Anas that Anas said: I was serving liquor to those persons and among them was a man named Abu Bakr and when he drank,
he recited the following verses:
“O mother of Bakr, peace…”
Then a man from Muslims entered and said: Has the verse of prohibiting
liquor been revealed…till the end of the tradition and this Abu Bakr is one, who
was called as Ibne Shagub. And some think that he was Abu Bakr Siddiq, but
such is not the case, but due to the context that Umar is mentioned, there is no
mistake in describing the man as most truthful (Siddiq – and he is the famous Abu
Bakr) and we have found the names of ten persons (who were present in that
drinking party).
Allamah Amini says: You can see that Ibne Hajar has refrained from
mentioning the tradition and loyalty to Caliph prevented him from accepting it,
but its authenticity does not allow him to ignore it. Thus, initially he regards it to
be strange and far-fetched and after that denies it, inspite of the fact that he knew
that there was no defect in the chains of its narrators.
Sometimes he regards it invalid and sometimes correct and at the end, he
does not refute its authenticity and correctness, and absolves himself through the
verdict that:
“One mentioned in the captioned traditional report is Abu Bakr Siddiq by
the context that Umar is also mentioned. And these two individuals are included
among the eleven persons, who drank liquor in the house of Abu Talha.”
Ibne Hajar knows that the tradition of Ayesha, which Abu Nuaim has quoted
in Hilya,9 is not authentic. Abu Nuaim has quoted this report from Ibad bin Ziyad
Saji from Ibne Adi from Shoba from Muhammad bin Abdur Rahman Abu Rijal
from Umrah, his mother from Ayesha and then he says:
“This tradition from Shoba is strange and unlikely and we have only
narrated it from the channels of Ibad Ibne Abi Adi.”
In view of Abdur Razzaq, there is a report from Muammar bin Thabit and
Qatada and others from Anas that those (who drank liquor in the house of Abu
Talha) were eleven persons.10
This drinking party took place during the year of the conquest of Mecca in 8
A.H. in the holy Medina, in the house of Abu Talha Zaid bin Sahal and the
bartender was Anas; as is mentioned in Sahih Bukhari,11 Kitabul Tafseer in Surah
Maidah under the verse of alcohol and Sahih Muslim in Kitabul Ashraba under
the chapter of prohibition of wine;12 and Suyuti in Durre Manthur.13