Read the extracts from the Sermon:
“In this last sermon of
the year 2011, I seize this opportunity to talk on alcoholism in society.
Alcohol can be very dangerous and it is the country’s most abused drug. Alcohol is a drug that is taken mainly for
its psychological effects. Alcohol drink is very, very expensive in Mauritius
So, basically alcohol depresses the nervous system and
allows people to lose their inhibitions. If drug companies had discovered the
effects of alcohol, then today maybe there would be no chance of it receiving
approval from a drug’s safety committee and it would never be marketed for
human consumption.
The immediate effects of alcohol are:
The loss of inhibitions,
Less self-conscious behaviour,
Loss of self-control,
Becoming more talkative and,
A feeling of cheerfulness.
However, alcohol acts more as a depressant than a stimulant (i.e. it is a drug that
dampens down the activity of the nervous system rather like a tranquilliser).
Many heavy drinkers are aware that their thinking is not as good as it used to
be.
Brain scans of
alcoholics with no obvious signs of brain damage show shrinkage of the brain
exactly like that found with old age and it is reckoned that regular heavy drinking takes ten years off
an individual’s life. In other words, instead of becoming senile at around
73 years of age, the alcoholic will show signs of senility at 63 years. There
is no organ in the body which is immune to the effects of alcohol, but those
exposed to the most alcohol, i.e. the gut and the liver, are the most likely to
be damaged.
In cirrhosis, the liver cells that are destroyed are replaced by scar
tissue. This is made up of fibrous bands which shrivel the liver and squash the
remaining healthy cells. The cirrhosis mortality rate shows that countries with the highest mortality rates
from cirrhosis are associated with alcoholic drinks. The association
between alcohol abuse and heart disease is well established. The toxic effect
of alcohol on the heart muscle weakens its pumping action and may even cause
congestive heart failure. Alcohol may also cause abnormalities in the rhythm of
the heart.
Heavy drinkers have long
been recognised as having a greatly
increased risk of premature death. One large study showed that men who had
alcohol problems sufficiently severe to warrant admission to a mental hospital,
had greater increased mortality. The chief causes of increased mortality are suicides,
accidents, respiratory infection, strokes and cancer.
The mortality rate in the ‘alcoholic’ is three and a
half times greater than in the general population. The divorce rate for people with
a drinking problem is much higher than for the general population. Drinking is
an expensive hobby even for the better off family, and it is not difficult to
imagine other better ways of spending the money. It is not surprising that
drinking behaviour is frequently implicated in family breakdown. Separated and divorced men tend to drink
much more heavily than married or single men. Sexual activity is a fair
guide to marital harmony and togetherness. A drinking problem accelerates
sexual disinterest and can actually be the cause of the disinterest. The
constant threat of violence in a home is an intense source of family stress and
episodes of verbal as well as physical aggression can indicate an underlying
drink problem. More than half of all
wife beaters are also heavy drinkers.
Excessive drinking is
also commonly linked to child abuse. According to my estimation that almost one-third of children who have an
alcoholic parent will show signs of emotional disturbance such as anxiety,
fear, feeling of insecurity and being unloved as well as anger and puzzlement as
to why their family is different from others. About two-thirds of children of
alcoholics will suffer behavioural disorders such as truanting from school and
being destructive.
It seems a fair estimate
that alcoholic drinks are involved in
about 60% of all crime committed by habitual criminals who form a large
part of the prison population. It is likely that over 50% of offences of a
violent nature, particularly those which occur late at night are committed near
public houses by people who have been drinking.
Drinking is also
associated with many cases of assault on wives. It is also often involved in a
wide variety of other crimes from road traffic offences to burglary, where an
offender has had a few drinks to give himself courage. There is also the whole
range of offences related directly to drunkenness.
Hence, there is little doubt that a connection exists between crime and drink. Sexual offences are often
committed by people who would not have done so if their behaviour had not been
affected by alcohol. Alcohol consumption can cause problems for employers, the
drinking employee and non-drinking colleagues.
The employer is harmed
by a loss in profits and productivity through bad time-keeping, sickness,
absenteeism, loss of efficiency (employees with a drink problem are 30-40% less
productive than other workers), increased
risk of accidents and a loss of trained staff to suffer a loss in pay and
promotions, injuries from accidents and mentally illness and ultimately a loss
of employment and family. A few individuals who were identified as having
an alcohol problem had an accident rate some 50% higher than the work place
average. Drinking and driving is one of the most serious road safety problems.
Although alcohol may
give a feeling of well-being, its major result is the interference with
muscular control and co-ordination lengthened reaction time, blurred vision and
decreased alertness. It also impairs the ability to judge speed and distance,
and to deal with the unexpected. All these adversely affect performance in
driving. In addition, alcohol impairs
judgement so that many individuals feel increasingly confident in their
ability to drive after having consumed alcohol whereas in reality, their
ability is impaired. It is not surprising that more than thousand or hundred
pedestrian road deaths every year were attributed to drinking by the
pedestrian.
About Islamic teachings
regarding alcohol, we find the following references to it in the Holy Quran:
“They ask you about intoxicants and gambling, say. “In
both these there is great harm and also some (small) advantage for people, but
their harm is much greater than their advantage.” (2: 220)
and again:
“Oh believers, intoxicants and gambling and idols and
divining arrows are utterly foul works of Satan. So abstain from them so that
you may be saved.” (5: 91)
The Holy Prophet (peace be upon you) said that
drinking (alcoholic drinks) is the mother of all evils. Islam has given the
perfect answer to the alcohol problem. Allah, who is the Most Merciful and
Compassionate towards His creatures, gave them the perfect command. Abstain
from them so that you may be saved. There are no other means and no short cuts
to control this unfortunate ailment of human society. Islam’s social teachings are extremely important for the protection and
survival of the family system. This is the dire need of the hour.
What lies in our power to do, lies also in our power
not to do. He that conquers others is strong;
he who conquers himself is mighty. Where self exists, God is not; where God
exists, there is no self. May these words act like
an eye-opener so that every one of you can think deeply on this subject and Insha-Allah
grasp its meaning and repercussions on one’s own body, family and society at
large.”