144 It Is Inadmissible That Man Who Hath Been Endowed With Reason Should Consume That Which Stealeth It Away #119
Categories:
NOTES
Sources:
The Kitab-i-aqdas
There are many references in the Baha'i Writings which prohibit the use of
wine and other intoxicating drinks and which describe the deleterious
effect of such intoxicants on the individual. In one of His Tablets,
Baha'u'llah states:
Beware lest ye exchange the Wine of God for your own wine, for it
will stupefy your minds, and turn your faces away from the
Countenance of God, the
All-Glorious, the Peerless, the
Inaccessible. Approach it not, for it hath been forbidden unto you
by the behest of God, the Exalted, the Almighty.
'Abdu'l-Baha explains that the Aqdas prohibits both light and strong
drinks, and He states that the reason for prohibiting the use of
alcoholic drinks is because alcohol leadeth the mind astray and causeth
the weakening of the body.
Shoghi Effendi, in letters written on his behalf, states that this
prohibition includes not only the consumption of wine but of everything
that deranges the mind, and he clarifies that the use of alcohol is
permitted only when it constitutes part of a medical treatment which is
implemented under the advice of a competent and conscientious physician,
who may have to prescribe it for the cure of some special ailment.