Why does Islam forbid alcohol if moderate drinking is supposedly healthy?

Because the ban is not primarily about the body but about the mind and morality. The Holy Qur’an itself acknowledges that alcohol has some benefits, but says its harm is greater, because it makes a person lose control over his actions.

It is remarkable that the Holy Qur’an does not deny that alcohol has benefits. It says openly that they exist. But it also says that the harm is greater. That harm lies above all in the way alcohol clouds the mind until a person is no longer in command of his actions. So the question should not be left to doctors alone. We must also ask what alcohol does to families and to life in society.

Look closely, and behind much crime, many accidents and much violence in families you find alcohol. Many a father takes the little money the family has to the pub and comes home drunk. Then his wife and children suffer. If alcohol is taken out of a society, it becomes a better and more peaceful place to live.

And can one not simply drink in moderation? The problem is that alcohol, like many substances, demands more and more over time. The same amount soon no longer has the same effect, so you need a little more. Staying moderate requires very strong self-discipline, which many cannot muster. An addiction also often gives birth to a worse one. Drinking milk or tea leads no one into worse habits. But the craving for an ever stronger high can be where the road to drugs begins.

God knows the inner nature of man and knows which forces run out of control once they are set loose. The ban concerns drinking in order to become intoxicated. Where alcohol is used as a remedy in an emergency and does not intoxicate, that is a different matter. At its heart, the ban protects the mind, the family and society.