Fun Fatwa Friday: Jesus never drank wine

From Islam Online's fatwa section:

Q: How would you respond to someone who says, "I don't see the wrong in drinking as Jesus himself drank, when he turned water into wine?"

A: Salam, dear questioner.


Thank you for your question.

Argument Based on Assumptions

As with many such arguments, it is based on the assumption that something is true, in order for the argument to make sense.

In other words, it is assumed as fact that Jesus drank wine because it says in the Christian Gospels that he did so.

If, however, such a thing is not accepted as a fact, then the whole argument falls down. There is no mention in the Qur'an of Jesus (peace be upon him) drinking wine, so Muslims have no belief that he did so.

Christians, for example, will tell us that Jesus died on the Cross. In the Qur'an we are told that:

*{… of a certainty they crucified him not.}* (An-Nisaa' 4: 157)

The Qur'an does not contradict itself. How could Almighty Allah make mistakes? If we read in many places that it is forbidden to drink alcohol and any intoxicants, then it would be a contradiction to believe that Jesus, one of the Prophets of Islam, did something which was forbidden.

...In other words, neither the Torah nor the Gospel can be relied upon as reliable sources. Why is this? It is because both the Torah and the Gospel were revealed to a specific people at a specific time in their history.

The Qur'an, though, was revealed for all people and for all time and that is why Allah has not allowed it to be corrupted through translation or any other means.

To say to a Muslim, then, that Jesus says such and such, because it is recorded that he says it in the Gospels, is not an argument that will convince them. Muslims believe that the only reliable record of anything Jesus said or did is to be found in the Qur'an.

Nice to know that Muslims don't fall into the trap of making assumptions the way Jews and Christians do.