SC - "Rose Soda" and the evils of "documentation"

[david friedman]

At 12:03 AM -0500 2/2/00, LrdRas at aol.com wrote:

>Actually, the prohibition of al-Islam is 'that not one drop' of the fermented
>juice of the grape is to drank. It does not prohibit the drinking of any
>other fermented drinks and does not, technically, prohibit the drinking of
>the remaining drops of wine in a bottle.


I don't think it is that simple.

There are four different orthodox legal schools in Sunni Islam, and 
each has its own interpretation of the prohibition. The most severe 
bans drinking, in any quantity however small, anything that makes you 
intoxicated, however much it takes to do so--a sort of Muslim 
equivalent of the Delaney Amendment. The least severe bans the 
drinking of wine--i.e. fermented grape juice--and bans getting drunk, 
defined as so drunk that you cannot tell the earth from the sky or a 
man from a woman.

My source for that summary is the Hattox book on the introduction of 
coffee; he discusses the question because there was some dispute as 
to whether coffee was covered by the ban. My impression is that he is 
generally reliable, but I haven't researched the matter further.

Incidentally, I gather there is an exception for  date beer that has 
fermented no more than three days.

David Friedman
Professor of Law
Santa Clara University
ddfr at best.com
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/