(O ye who believe! Strong drink and games of chance and idols and divining arrows are only an infamy of Satan’s handiwork) [5:90]. Abu Sa‘id ibn Abi Bakr al-Mutawwi’i informed us> Abu ‘Amr Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Hiri> Ahmad ibn ‘Ali al-Mawsili> Abu Khaythamah> al-Hasan ibn Musa> Zuhayr> Simak ibn Harb> Mus‘ab ibn Sa‘d ibn Abi Waqqas> his father who said: “I went to a group of Emigrants and Helpers and they said to me: ‘Let us feed you and give you wine to drink’, this was before intoxicants were made unlawful. So I went to a field where they had a roasted camel's head and a barrel of wine. I ate and drank with them. Then I mentioned the Emigrants and the Helpers and said: ‘The Emigrants are better than the Helpers’. One of the man grabbed one of the jawbones [of the head we ate] and hit me with it, severing my nose in the process. I went to the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, and informed him of what had happened, and Allah, exalted is He, revealed about me the matter of intoxicants (drink and games of chance)”. Narrated by Muslim from Abu Khaythamah. ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Hamdan al-‘Adl informed us> Ahmad ibn Ja‘far ibn Malik> ‘Abd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal> his father> Khalaf ibn al-Walid> Isra’il> Abu Ishaq> Abu Maysarah> ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab who made a supplication, saying: “O Allah, explain to us unequivocally the matter of intoxicants”, and so the verse of Surah al-Baqarah was revealed (They question thee about strong drink and games of chance) [2:219] ‘Umar was summoned and this verse was recited to him. But he prayed again: “O Allah, explain to us unequivocally the matter of intoxicants”, and so the verse of Surah al-Nisa’ was revealed (O ye who believe! Draw not near unto prayer when ye are drunken…). The crier of the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, used to say after announcing the beginning of any prayer: “Whoever is drunk should not approach the prayer”. Again ‘Umar was summoned and this verse was recited to him. Again he prayed: “O Allah, explain to us unequivocally the matter of intoxicants”. This verse was then revealed (Strong drink and games of chance). ‘Umar was summoned and the verse was recited to him and when it got to the words of Allah (Will ye then have done?), upon which ‘Umar said: “We refrain from it, we refrain from it”.
Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi , trans. Mokrane Guezzou
