About alcohol and society.

Asalamu alaikum wa rahmahtullahi wa baraktuh brothers and sisters and peace to all non-Muslims reading this blog.

Firstly, I’d like to point out that I’m none of the following:

1. I’m not a sheikh nor scholar of the deen.
2. I’m not a health professor nor have I extensively studied alcohol’s affects on the body. So when I make claims based on this please feel more than welcome to correct me in the comments and I will take everything said into account.
3. Alhamdulillah. I do not drink. Call this a bias if you will. But also take into account I have drank before, this was prior to my conversion to the deen of Islaam.

The use of consuming Alcohol in Australian society seems rather pointless to me personally in that our youth (and adults for that matter) seem to go out of their way to consume alcohol. Not necessarily for the taste of their preferred beverage, rather for the fact that it is alcohol regardless of whether or not they are drinking for the sake of getting drink or just because. At parties, you see people trading drinks, sharing drinks and mixing drinks and constantly checking out their drinks alcoholic content, or how many standard drinks. On Monday morning at work, while commuting or while among drinking friends you always hear about the weekend. What some drunk moron did, how much someone drank like it some kind of badge of honour.

Now, the pros and cons of alcohol.

Pros:
1. Social lubricant.
2. Reduced risk of Ischaemic Heart Disease.

Cons
1. Alcohol has been associated with a 75% increased risk of Cancer. (This can be as little as 1-2 drinks daily.)
2. Speeds up the aging process. (This can begin even after one standard drink, as you are adding to the natural alcohols in your body)
3. Alcohol is the number one causes of both accident related injuries and youth fatalities.
4. Liver damage. And this is not just due to excess consumption.

Call it a bias that I’ve only listed two pros and I’ve listed four cons, but to be honest I listed all that I could find.

So that basically confirms that alcohol’s benefits may be minutely there, but the harms certainly outweigh them.

Now. I’d like to delve into why alcohol is legal despite being more harmful than a literal ton of things that have been outlawed in Western soceity.
The first reason is the government and revenue. We live in a society where the government make their money partially off of sales taxes and alcohol, to my understanding, does have a quite high tax attached to it. Much like cigarettes. Alcohol can be and is an addictive substance and to many Australians is synonymous with and vital for a ‘good time’, no matter how high the tax people will be willing to pay.
Also, prohibition has been tried in the USA, and we all know how that ended. So trying to ban/outlaw alcohol is not going to work.
So what will work to erradicate alcohol you may ask. The answer is, probably nothing. Unfortunately. Most people won’t give it up until (if it ever happens) some rather dire consequences come of their actions.

They ask you (O Muhammad ) concerning alcoholic drink and gambling. Say: “In them is a great sin, and (some) benefit for men, but the sin of them is greater than their benefit.” And they ask you what they ought to spend. Say: “That which is beyond your needs.” Thus Allâh makes clear to you His Laws in order that you may give thought.
(Qur’an: 2:219)

I’ve realised this blog may be quite disjointed and for that I apologise.

Wasalam.
Sayf Udeen.