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Is it true that one who drinks intoxicants cannot pray until several days have passed?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Drinking intoxicants is among the major sins and forbidden acts according to the Qur'an, Sunnah, and scholarly consensus. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, threatened those who drink intoxicants that Allah would make them drink from teenat al-khabaal—the sweat or fluid of the inhabitants of Hellfire. And whoever drinks alcohol, their prayers will not be accepted for forty mornings. If a person becomes intoxicated and loses their mind, their prayer becomes invalid, based on Allah's saying: "O you who have believed, do not approach prayer while you are intoxicated until you know what you are saying." The intoxicated person must repent and establish prayer immediately upon regaining sobriety.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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