No Compulsion in Religion

Among the Arabs of Madīnah, in the days of Jāhiliyyah, some of them had this superstition: that if they had children and they kept on dying — the mother would have a child and then the child would die, she would have a second child and that child would die — they had the superstition that if a vow was made that the next child would be a Jew, then the child would live. Because of this, some households had sons and brothers being raised among Banū al-Naḍīr in fulfilment of such vows. So when Banū al-Naḍīr were being driven out, these families came to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and said, "We have some of our sons, some of our brothers, among them — what should we do?" The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) did not answer them until an ayah of the Qur'an was revealed:

"There is no compulsion in religion" — this is a well-known verse, in Sūrat al-Baqarah: the right course has become distinct from error. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) then told them — this is in a sound narration — qad khuyyira aṣḥābukum, fa-in ikhtārūkum fa-hum minkum, wa-in ikhtārūhum fa-hum minhum: "give these sons and brothers of yours the choice — if they choose you, they are yours, and if they choose Banū al-Naḍīr, they belong with them." In other words, they could not be compelled or forced to stay behind and become Muslim, even though they were ethnically Arab, even though they were their own children. These matters are not about ethnicity — Islam does not recognise them this way; it is what is in the heart that counts. Islam is not against a particular race, whether that race is the Jewish race or the white race or any race — Islam is a religion for everyone, and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said that Allah (swt) does not look at your outward forms or the colour of your skin, but looks at your hearts. So these children of theirs, even though they were part of their families: if they chose their own families, then they were Muslim; if they chose the Jews, then they had to live with them, and could not be forced otherwise to become Muslim. And this is the reason for the revelation of this ayah that is well known in Sūrat al-Baqarah, lā ikrāha fī al-dīn.

Also, alcohol was banned during the siege of Banū al-Naḍīr — that was when the ayah prohibiting alcohol was revealed marking the final of the four stages by which the prohibition of alcohol occurred. This was the final stage, so it is fairly late: this is the fourth year of the hijrah, so Muslims had continued drinking for seventeen years before that. It was not until the last six years of the life of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) that alcohol was banned.