O you who acknowledge, do not come near the contact prayer while you are drunk, until you know what you are saying. Nor if you have had intercourse, unless traveling, until you bathe. If you are ill, or traveling, or one of you come from the bathroom, or you had sexual contact with the women, and could not find water: then you shall seek clean soil and wipe your faces and hands. God is Pardoning, Forgiving.
Translation endnotes
[4:43] The followers of hadith and sunna reject this statement by claiming the presence of a contradiction between this verse and other verses prohibiting the intoxicants. Their rejection of God's verse and their allegation of contradiction in God's book are due to their ignorance of the fact that there could be individuals among muslims who consume alcoholic beverages just as there could be those who steal, commit adultery, or commit false accusation. Acknowledgement of the imperfect nature of a Muslim community does not mean that God justifies sins and crimes. Our Lord informs a Muslim who is doing wrong to himself or herself by consuming alcohol not to commit additional disrespect to God by addressing God in a drunken state of mind. Additionally, this verse indirectly gives permission to the community to not to allow their intoxicated brothers and sisters into the places of prostration. Another lesson derived from this commandment is that we should know what we are saying or reciting during our prayers. Reciting Arabic words without knowing their meanings is like praying while intoxicated. See 2:106; 4:82. Bleeding, passing gas, or shaking hands with women and other reasons mentioned in hadith and sectarian books, do not void the ablution. Despite this clear verse, Sunni and Shiite sects contain many contradictory rules about ablution. The relationship between washing hands or faces with water and mental readiness to speak to God is not scientifically obvious, but, according to a recent study conducted at the University of Toronto, washing hands may clean of a guilty conscience. See 5:6.