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A girl drank alcohol before Ramadan began, then she started to fast at the beginning of Ramadan, but one of the sisters told her that her fasting would be rejected and that Allah would not accept it because she had drunk wine recently, and that she had to wait forty days before Allah would accept her prayer and fasting. Is this true? May Allah reward you with good.
Praise be to Allah.
Drinking alcohol is a major sin, for wine is the mother of all evils. It clouds the mind, wastes money, causes headaches, tastes foul, and is an abomination of the Shaytan’s [Satan’s] handiwork.
It creates enmity and hatred between people, prevents them from remembering Allah and praying, calls them to zina [unlawful sexual relationships], and may even call them to commit incest with their daughters, sisters or other female relatives. It takes away pride and protective jealousy (ghirah), and generates shame, regret and disgrace, and puts the drinker in the same category as the most imperfect type of people, namely those who are insane. It leads to the disclosure of secrets and exposure of faults. It encourages people to commit sins and evil actions. It makes people transgress sacred limits and the one who is addicted to it is like an idol-worshipper.
How many wars has it started, how many rich men has it made poor, how many noble people has it brought low, how many blessings has it destroyed, how many disasters has it caused?
How often has it created division between man and wife?
How much regret has it generated and how many tears has it caused to flow?
How often has it closed the doors of goodness to the drinker and opened the doors of evil to him?
How often has it brought about calamity and hastened death?
How much trouble has it brought to the one who drinks it?
It is the source of sin, the key to evil; it takes away blessings and brings calamity.
Even if it did not have all these evil consequences, the fact that one cannot have both the wine of this world and the wine of Paradise is a sufficient deterrent.
And the evil consequences of alcohol are many times more than we have mentioned. (From the words of Ibn al-Qayyim in Hadi al-Arwah)
Allah has warned us against it in His Book and on the lips of His Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).
“O you who believe! Intoxicants (all kinds of alcoholic drinks), and gambling, and Al-Ansab (stone altars for sacrifices to idols, jinn, etc), and Al-Azlam (arrows for seeking luck or decision) are an abomination of Shaytan’s (Satan’s) handiwork. So avoid (strictly all) that (abomination) in order that you may be successful.” [Al-Maidah 5:90]
The fact that his prayers are not accepted does not mean that the person’s prayers are invalid, or that he should give up prayer. Rather what it means is that he will not be rewarded for them. So the purpose of his prayer is to fulfil his duty and to avoid the punishment for not praying.
Abu ‘Abd-Allah ibn Mandah said:
“The phrase “his prayers will not be accepted” means that he will not be rewarded for his prayers for forty days, as a punishment for drinking alcohol . This is like what they said about the one who speaks when the imam is delivering the khutbah on Friday: he prays Jumu’ah [Friday prayer] but there is no Jumu’ah for him, meaning that he will not be given the reward for praying Jumu`ah, as a punishment for his sin.” (Ta’zim Qadr al-Salah, 2/587, 588)
Al-Nawawi said:
“With regard to his prayer not being accepted, what this means is that he will not be rewarded for it, even though it is valid, and he does not have to repeat it.
With regard to what the questioner was told about her fasting not being accepted, this is based on the view of some of the scholars that the mention of prayer in the hadith quoted above is a warning that no other acts of worship will be accepted either.
Al-Mubarakfuri said in Tuhfat al-Ahwadhi:
It is said that prayer was singled out for mention because it is the best physical act of worship, and if it is not accepted, it is more likely that other acts of worship will not be accepted either.
Al-‘Iraqi and al-Manawi also said something similar.
Based on this view, fasting is not accepted either, but this does not mean that the person who drank alcohol should not fast, rather he is enjoined to fast, but it will not be accepted from him, as a rebuke.
Undoubtedly the person who drinks alcohol should still offer the prayers on time, and fast in Ramadan. If he omits some of his prayer or fasting, he will be committing a major sin that is even greater than the sin of drinking alcohol .
It should be noted that if a Muslim commits sin and is unable to repent because of his weakness of faith, that should not be used to justify his persisting in sin or his addiction, or his neglecting to do acts of worship. Rather he has to do whatever he can of acts of worship and strive to give up the sins that he is committing.
The Muslim has to fear Allah and beware of the wiles and snares of the Shaytan [Satan]. He should not let his soul become a plaything of the Shaytan. If his Shaytan overpowers him and makes him fall into sin and disobedience towards his Creator, then he must hasten to repent, for “the one who repents is like the one who did not sin.” (Narrated by Ibn Majah, 2450; classed as sahih by al-Busayri as stated in al-Zawaid Hashiyat Sunan Ibn Majah)
This punishment for the one who drinks alcohol applies to the one who does not repent. As for the one who repents and turns to Allah, Allah will accept his repentance and accept his good deeds.
We ask Allah to protect us from the tricks of the Shaytan and to help us avoid temptations both obvious and hidden.
And Allah knows best.