'Excessive alcohol consumption not only brings costs in terms of personal health, but tangible social costs in terms of lost productivity, health care costs, road accident costs and crime-related costs that have been estimated at $10.8 billion in 2004-05.'*(Australia's Health 2008)
Surah 5 of the Quran
Verse 91: Satan's plan is (but) to excite enmity and hatred between you, with intoxicants and gambling, and hinder you from the remembrance of Allah, and from prayer: will ye not then abstain?
Verse 92: Obey Allah, and obey the Messenger, and beware (of evil): if ye do turn back, know ye that it is Our Messengers duty to proclaim (the message) in the clearest manner.
Sayings of the prophet
-Tariq ibn Suwayd or Suwayd ibn Tariq asked the Prophet(pbuh) about wine, but he forbade it. He again asked him, but he forbade him. He said to him: Prophet of Allah, it is a medicine. The prophet(pbuh) said No its a disease.
-Allah's Messenger (pbuh) cursed ten people in connection with wine: the wine-presser, the one who has it pressed, the one who drinks it, the one who conveys it, the one to whom it is conveyed, the one who serves it, the one who sells it, the one who benefits from the price paid for it, the one who buys it, and the one for whom it is bought.
Just for comparison sake, 10.8 billion dollar represents 1/3 of the Kenyan or Sri Lankan Total Economy or the Total Combined Economy of Cape Verde, Eritrea, Bhutan, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, Maldives, Burundi, Djibouti, Liberia, Seychelles, Gambia, Zimbabwe.
If only
*
http://www.aihw.gov.au/mediacentre/2008/mr20080624.cfm