"Then v. 43 tells believers not to come to prayers while drunk. Ibn Abi Hatim
says this was revealed because one of the Muslims began to recite sura 109:1-3:
“Say: O disbelievers! I do not worship that which you worship; nor do you
worship that which I worship.” But the leader of prayer was drunk, and so he
said: “Say, O disbelievers! I do not worship that which you worship, but we
worship that which you worship.” 4:43 was revealed shortly thereafter. It was
the first stage of the three-stage Qur’anic prohibition of alcohol. First Allah
commanded the Muslims not to pray while drunk in this passage; then he told them
that alcohol was a “great sin, and some profit, for men” (2:219); and finally
there came the revelation that alcohol was “Satan’s handiwork” (5:90), and thus
to be shunned altogether. The last of these verses is considered to have
abrogated the other two. Muhammad himself became quite stern about drunkenness,
saying that drunks should be given three chances and then executed: “If he is
intoxicated, flog him; again if he is intoxicated, flog him; again if he is
intoxicated, flog him; if he does it again a fourth time, kill him.” "
Can you imagine if we enforced this in the west, how many stars would have been killed? Lindsay would be on her last chance, looking at death if she got drunk again. One of the things that I respect about Islam is its approach to alcohol - no I don't think drinkers should be killed. Alcohol is a dangerous social ill, and Islam may be one of the first laws the saw that danger.
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