Alkohol : Haram ke tidak ?

Salam everyone! What is your take on alcohol in Islam? Now before anyone gets the wrong idea, I'm in no way advocating Muslims to drink all those alcoholic drinks but rather to clear this rather demonic stature of this pivotal chemical from Muslim minds. As far as I know, God Almighty mentions and prohibits the word khamr in Islam (khamr=intoxicants). If that's the case, then what about Muslims who take alcoholic drinks in minute amount in the form of cooking or as a relaxant for the stomach BUT not for the intention of becoming drunk? Question: I recently asked someone who claims or atleast intends to follow the "true" Islam: Is it that alcoholic drinks are banned OR alcohol in itself? He answered both. This proves that Muslims don't even know what alcohol is in the first place! For clarity, a little chemistry lesson is in order. Alcohol is actually a group of organic chemicals which differ in terms of number of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Just as how yellow, red, green, blue etc are grouped as colours; apple, orange, banana, cherry(and yes tomato) are grouped as fruits, methanol, ethanol, propanol, glycerol, phenol, menthol and million others are grouped as alcohols. Commercial alcoholic drinks(beer, wine etc.) use ethanol as the alcoholic ingredient, obtained through fermentation of fruits, rice or malt. The fact is, without alcohol, our life would be incomplete. Ethanol is used as a universal solvent(to dissolve stuff) while other alcohols are used as antiseptic, as a biological preservative and even an ingredient of perfumes! As a matter of fact, we humans have alcohol naturally in our body! All our fats, including cholesterol is made from alcohol! We get our sexual characteristics from the hormone testosterone(male) and progesterone-oestrogen(female). These hormones are synthesised from cholesterol! Even one part of making bread requires the use of the fermentation process. Yes that's right, bread has small amounts of alcohol in it! Vinegar, a very famous salad dressing is made from alcohol by converting the alcohol into an acid. So here I ask is alcohol prohibited? In some countries, if you enter a mosque wearing an alcoholic perfume (all perfumes have some sort of alcohol in it) the "religious" people kick you out. It's like saying cook for chicken curry without using any chicken nor curry; make perfume without alcohol! What do you guys think? Would some one care to enlighten me? This is the answer to the above query: Prof Dr Zaki: Assalamualaikum, secara mudahnya bukan semua alkokohol itu mengandungi arak, alkohol yg proses pembuatan utk jadi arak adalah haram dan najis...ini dikatakan zat dah jadi arak...klu minum sedikit pun haram...contoh klasik spr tuak itu haram sbb proses menjdi minuman yg memabukkan sementara cuka itu halal sbb proses untuk tujuan permakanan dan sudah hilang zatnya wlupun masih ada unsur alkohol di dalamnya. I think better you refer e fatwa kebangsaan, dah jelas isu ni sejak tahun 1984 lagi...anyhow isu ini perlu dijelaskan sbb masyarakat ramai yg keliru antara alkohol yg ada dlm buah2an dan yg ada dlm minuman yg diproses utk jadi arak....