Question
I understand Alcohol is an Arabic word but it has not been mentioned in the holy Qur’an. However, Khumr and Sakr have been used in the Book. I wanted to learn what is the difference among the three? Why Alcohol which is a universal word has not been employed whereas God knows future. I believe even the Arabs use the word Alcohol. Khamr and Sakr are not universal words.
Answer
First, as a general principle please note that the Qur’an uses the language of its immediate addressees as they are its main and initial target. It is therefore not right to expect the Qur’an to use a word that will appear in future.
Having said that, it seems like actually the word Alcohol is used by the Qur’an:
The word Alcohol is in fact an Arabic word, it is the west that has taken the Arabic word and not the other way round. According to a view, the original word is Al-Ghoul (الغول) but either because of confusion with the word الكحل (that is a powder used for eyeliner) or perhaps because of difficulty in pronouncing ‘gh’ for non-Arab, the word Al-Cohol was used instead. Later Arabs adopted the same usage and entered the word الکحول in their language.
Interestingly enough the word ‘ghoul’ has been used in the Qur’an (Qur’an, 37: 45-47):
يُطَافُ عَلَيهْم بِكَأْسٍ مِّن مَّعِينِ بَيْضَاءَ لَذَّةٍ لِّلشَّارِبِينَ لَا فِيهَا غَوْلٌ وَ لَا هُمْ عَنهْا يُنزَفُونَ
The word ‘ghoul’ literally means ‘distorting something’, in this verse it means the bad effect of alcohol that can distort the mind. The verse says that the wine that will be given to people in heaven will not distort their mind.
Khamr in the Qur’an refers to the intoxicated drinks that Arabs used to have (that was usually extracted from dates and grapes). Literally Khamr means to cover something, it is used for intoxicated drinks because once a person consumes them it is as if his brain is covered and he cannot think properly. Another opinion is that since they needed to cover the pots in which they were making the intoxicated drinks, therefore they called it Khamr.
Sukr refers to the state of being totally confused, this can refer to any general state of confusion as it can refer to the specific state of confusion that comes as the result of being drunk. The Qur’an has used the word for both situations.
Answered by: Farhad Shafti
Date: 2015-03-23
