Re: Ali and Praying under the influence
^the battles that Ali [as] fought in his tenure were already all predicted and his position authenticated by the ahadith of the Prophet.It was not a matter of politics alone but politics which had profound religious implications, otherwise there are no need for the Prophet[saw] to make predictions about them.
Furthermore when it comes to fighting rebels within muslims Ali is the first authority in islam after Quran.
His leadership is questioned many times as people are misled and are told half-truths about islamic history which makes Ali look either like a bungling fool or a infallible imam against whom the whole ummah united for the sole purpose of preventing his imamate becoming a reality.
for this incident its time and whether wine was fully prohibited at that time or not will be the things to determine.
But Israr is not some great Authority on islamic history as some like to think , I saw one of his lectures on the civil war and couldnt even identify proporly who were the sahaba and who were not.