Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Sahihah

Salim bin Abdullah bin Umar narrates from his father, Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him), that Sayyiduna Abu Bakr Siddiq, Sayyiduna Umar bin Khattab (may Allah be pleased with them both), and other companions were sitting in a gathering after the passing of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). They began to discuss the gravest of sins. However, they did not have any definitive knowledge on which to conclude the matter. So they sent me (Abdullah) to Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr bin al-As (may Allah be pleased with him) to ask him about it. He told me that the gravest sin is drinking alcohol. I returned to them and informed them of this, but they did not accept it, and all of them stood up and went to the house of Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with him). This time, he explained in detail, saying: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "A king from the Children of Israel seized a man and gave him the choice to either drink alcohol, kill a child, commit adultery, or eat the flesh of swine, forcing him to commit one of these crimes, otherwise he would be killed. So he drank the alcohol. But when he drank the alcohol, he could not refrain from committing all the crimes they wanted from him." At that time, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) told us: "Whoever drinks alcohol, his prayer will not be accepted for forty days. Whoever dies in such a state that there is some alcohol in his bladder, Paradise will be forbidden for him. And if he dies within forty days (after drinking alcohol), he will die the death of ignorance (Jahiliyyah)."