What is the hadd for drinking wine, and is the drinker executed at the fourth offence?

The prohibition of wine is established by the Qur'an, the Sunna and consensus, and Ibn Hazm holds that whoever declares it lawful after knowing the text and the consensus is an apostate; the punishment of the drinker, however, is disputed in its basis and its amount, and in whether a repeat drinker is executed. Ibn Hazm gives it two questions in the Book of Hadd Punishments of al-Muhalla. ^{1 5}

Ibn Hazm reports that one group said the Prophet fixed no hadd for it and later authorities did; another that there is no hadd at all; and another that he did fix one, after which they differed between eighty and forty. ¹ He gives what the first group cited: 'Ali's saying that he would feel nothing if anyone died under a hadd he applied except the wine drinker, for whom he would pay blood-money, since the Prophet laid down no fixed practice for it; then the reports of al-Nu'ayman, of Abu Hurayra (may God be pleased with him) on beating with hands, sandals and garments, and of al-Sa'ib ibn Yazid: drinkers were brought in the Prophet's time, under Abu Bakr and early in 'Umar's caliphate, and we beat them with our hands, sandals and cloaks, until late in 'Umar's rule he gave forty lashes, and when they grew insolent and dissolute he gave eighty. ^{1 6} He relates the case of the man nicknamed Himar, whom the Prophet had flogged repeatedly for drinking and whom he forbade people to curse, and then says: Abu Bakr gave forty for wine, 'Umar forty early in his rule, 'Uthman applied both, eighty and forty, and Mu'awiya fixed the hadd at eighty. ^{6 7}

Ibn Hazm holds that whoever takes 'Umar's addition, and that of those who added with him as discretionary punishment, as an obligatory hadd must also make burning the wine-seller's house and banishing the drinker a hadd, since 'Umar did both; 'Umar also gave forty and sixty after having given eighty; and they would likewise have to shave the drinker after the fourth offence as 'Umar did. ⁷ He concludes that forty was the practice of Abu Bakr, 'Umar, 'Uthman, 'Ali, al-Hasan ibn 'Ali and 'Abd Allah ibn Ja'far in the presence of the Companions, that it is the view of al-Shafi'i, Abu Sulayman and their followers, and that he adopts it. ²

Ibn Hazm reports that people differed over a drinker punished three times who drinks a fourth time: one group said he is executed, and he relates from 'Abd Allah ibn 'Amr ibn al-'As: "bring me a man who has been punished for wine, and if I do not kill him I am a liar"; while Malik, al-Shafi'i, Abu Hanifa and others said he is not executed, citing this from 'Umar and Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas. ^{5 3} He gives Mu'awiya's report: "If they drink wine, flog them; then if they drink, flog them; then if they drink, kill them", and in another version, "then if he drinks a fourth time, strike his neck". ³

He answers the arguments of those who deny execution: Jabir's report that the command was abrogated is not sound, since only Sharik the judge and Ziyad al-Bakka'i, from Ibn Ishaq, transmit it connected from Ibn al-Munkadir, and both are weak; Qabisa ibn Dhu'ayb's report that 'Umar flogged Abu Mihjan eight times is disconnected; and Zayd ibn Aslam's report is disconnected and does not show that it came after the command to execute. ⁸ He lays down that the commands of God and His Messenger must be combined and all obeyed, and that none may be called abrogated without a clear text, a consensus or a firm date; and he ends by saying that the Prophet's command to execute at the fourth offence is sound and its abrogation is not, and that had it been sound he would have held it. ^{9 4}

The schools' views from their own books, the named imams who hold eighty, and Ibn Hazm's following questions on when the drunk is punished, the punishment of a dhimmi and mixed drinks have not yet been added.