Most Muslims will maintain that the Islamic prohibition of drinking wine or any alcoholic beverage is clear and unambiguous, based on the Qurءan and the hadith. It is true that some Qurءanic passages seem to mention wine as one of God's blessings, but a later revelation “abrogated” these and called wine an “abomination” from Satan. Without wishing to undermine this belief, Kathryn Kueny sets out to investigate the various early Islamic discourses that helped to shape the general condemnation of wine and to point out the ambiguity of the issue. She uses Mary Douglas's concepts of purity and impurity, draws parallels with Jewish and Christian traditions, and discusses the debate about wine as it is found in the Qurءan, in the “canonical” hadith compilations, and in (mostly Arabic) poetry.