Seadet-i Ebediyye - Endless Bliss - Sixth Fascicle

unanimously reported by Islamic Fiqh scholars. Seker and naqî’ are ‘khafîf najâsat’s. According to Imâm A’zam (Abû Hanîfa) ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’, the tilâ’s and the seker’s and the naqî’s being harâm is conditional on their foaming. Since there is not a scholarly consensus on these three beverages, he who denies the judgment that they are harâm will not become a kâfir.

On the other hand, there are four beverages that are halâl to consume, according to (the ijtihâds of) Imâm A’zam and Imâm Abû Yûsuf: 1– Raisins or dates are kept in cold water until the sugar in them transfers to the water. Next, all the mixture is heated until it boils. When it becomes cold it is sieved. The liquid obtained thereby is called nebîdh (or nabîdh) (treacle of dates). Even if the taste of nebîth is pungent, it will be halâl to consume it, unless it intoxicates you. If it is not heated, it becomes harâm when it foams and assumes a pungent taste.

2– A mixture of raisins and dates are kept in water, then the liquid with them all in it is heated and sieved. It is halâl to consume it even if it has a pungent taste, unless, again, it will intoxicate the consumer. This beverage is termed khalîtân (mixed treacle).

3– When any one of honey or figs or barley or wheat or corns or millets or plums or apricots or apples, or the like, is kept for a while in cold water for a while, it is halâl to drink it below the level of intoxication, even if the mixture has not been heated before consumption. For, it is stated as follows in a hadîth-i-sherîf: “Wine is made from grapes and dates.” [Such beverages are harâm if they will intoxicate the consumer. So is the case with beer. Raqi obtained from grain is called whisky by British people, and vodka

by Russians. These beverages contain a fifty or sixty percentage of alcohol.]

4– The fourth one is muthelleth (an alcoholic beverage reduced to a third by boiling). If grape juice, when it is fresh yet, i.e. before it starts to foam and release bubbles of gas, is heated and boiled until two-thirds of it is gone and one-third of it remains, it is called ‘muthelleth’. Even if it has a pungent taste, it is halâl to drink an amount of it that will not intoxicate you.

As grape juice is being boiled (to make grape juice treacle), limestone powder called ‘soil for making pekmez (grape juice treacle)’ is added into it to eliminate its sour taste. Thereby (grape juice treacle termed) pekmez is obtained. The pekmez is called sapa or rob by the French. More than sixty per cent of the pekmez – 48 –