Assalam alaikum,
Abu Shahma was a son of Umar. He fought in the battles in Egypt andwhich he built a house for himself in Fustat.
One day in the company of a friend he inadvertently drank wine andbecame unconscious. The following day he went with his friend to Amrbin Al Aas (the Govenor of the region) where they confessed theirguilt, and wanted to be punished. Amr bin Al Aas said that as they haddrunk the wine inadvertently, and were feeling repentant, that was enough and no further punishment was called for.
Abu Shahma did not wish to avail of the benefit of inadvertence. Heinsisted that he should be punished according to law, failing whichhe would bring the matter to the notice of the Caliph (at that time,his father). Thereupon Arm bin Al Aas inflicted the usual punishmentof lashes in the privacy of his house. Abu Shahma's head was also shaved off in the house of the Governor.
The incident was reported to Caliph Umar who wrote a letter to Amr which read:
"O Amr bin Al Aas it has come to my notice that you have been derelictin the performance of your duty. You have shown undue favor to AbuShahma by awarding him punishment in your house rather than at apublic place. You were apparently moved by the consideration that heis my son. You should know that in such matters I cannot tolerate anyconcession to a person on the ground that he is related to me. As soon as you get this letter send Abu Shahma to Medina on a naked camel."
Amr bin Al Aas complied with the instructions and dispatched AbuShahma to Madina. En route Abu Shahma fell sick and when he reachedMadina he could hardly walk.
Umar was furious, and he ordered that Abu Shahma should be lashed inpublic. However, another companion, Abdul Rahman ibn Auf pleaded thatthe boy had already been lashed in Egypt and no further punishment wascalled for.
Umar brushed aside these pleadings and Abu Shahma was floggedpublicly. Abu Shahma could not withstand the ordeal and due to hisweakened condition because of his illness he fell senseless after afew stripes had been inflicted. He remained in a state of agony for afew days and then died.
NB The significance of the 'naked camel' was to ensure that his
journey to Madina was uncomfortable.There is in the Quran no specific punishment for drinking alcohol. Norin the sunnah of the Prophet is there a specific punishment. This isproven by the fact that during the time of Caliph Abu Bakr, if a drunken person was prosecuted they would be punished with 40 stripes of a whip. But during the time of Caliph Umar, the punishment was 80 stripes. Had the Sunnah of the Prophet included a specific punishment for becoming drunk, both Abu Bakr and Umar would have applied that.However, what is shown is that they engaged in ijtehad and came to the conclusions they had, and Allah knows best.
In the case of Caliph Umar and his son, the Caliph was partly motivated by whisperings amongst the people who started to question whether his son would recieve favourable treatment or not. The fact that Amr ibn al Aas had already punished Abu Shahma was irrelevant.The fact that Abu Shahma was ill was also irrelevant. At a time when the Muslim community was still young and growing, any perception of injustice would weaken its efforts. What choice did he have? Do nothing, these whisperings amongst people increase, instability sets in, and the integrity of Islam is compromised. Do something, and hiss on, already punished in private, is punished yet again (i.e. twice),but this time in public.
Right or wrong, Allah knows best. What we do know is that a father saw his son die through an action which he himself inflicted, not so muchfor the crime of being drunk itself, more in an effort to show thateveryone who commits a crime will be treated with the same level ofjustice in an attempt to keep the Muslim community strong.
May Allah Almighty have mercy and forgive us our sins, our errors/misjudgments and our deliberate wrongs, ameen.
fi amanillah, assalam alikum, f
