Question:
A man is so addicted to drinking alcohol that he keeps drinking during the nights of Ramadan. What is the ruling on his fasting during the day?
Answer:
Drinking alcohol is among the major sins. Allah the Exalted says:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِنَّمَا الْخَمْرُ وَالْمَيْسِرُ وَالْأَنْصَابُ وَالْأَزْلَامُ رِجْسٌ مِنْ عَمَلِ الشَّيْطَانِ فَاجْتَنِبُوهُ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ ٭ إِنَّمَا يُرِيدُ الشَّيْطَانُ أَنْ يُوقِعَ بَيْنَكُمُ الْعَدَاوَةَ وَالْبَغْضَاءَ فِي الْخَمْرِ وَالْمَيْسِرِ وَيَصُدَّكُمْ عَنْ ذِكْرِ اللَّـهِ وَعَنِ الصَّلَاةِ فَهَلْ أَنْتُمْ مُنْتَهُونَ
”O you who believe! Intoxicants, gambling, idols, and divining arrows are only an abomination of Shaytan’s handiwork. So avoid it that you may be successful. Shaytan only wants to cause enmity and hatred between you through intoxicants and gambling, and to hinder you from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer. So will you not desist?”
Therefore, his drinking alcohol is forbidden both in Ramadan and outside Ramadan. Although drinking in Ramadan increases its prohibition, it is obligatory upon the one who drinks alcohol to repent: he should stop drinking alcohol, feel remorse and regret for the negligence and disobedience of drinking alcohol, and firmly resolve never to commit such a mistake again, both in Ramadan and outside Ramadan. As for the fasting of this person who drinks alcohol at night, his fast is valid, provided that from the break of true dawn until sunset, for the sake of Allah and with the intention of fasting, he refrains from all things that break the fast.
“Al-Lajnah al-Da’imah (The Permanent Committee)”
