Is cigarette smoking
haram?
By Mufti Ebrahim Desai
Friday, January 25, 2008
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Cross section of Muslimahs at the celebration of 1429
Hijra (Islamic New Year) by The Islamic Preaching and
Enlightenment Society of Nigeria in Agege, Lagos recently.
PHOTO: MOSHOOD RAJI |
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If smoking is not haram, why? If it is haram, would you
give me the fatawa/ahadith about this? Jazakallah Khair.
It is a universally accepted and indisputable fact that smoking
has many serious health and life hazards, for example, lung
cancer, etc. to the smoker as well as those (non-smokers)
in his (smokers) environment, therefore, not permissible.
Shari'ah has explained in great length the importance and
virtue of good health to the extent that Rasulullah (Sallallaahu
Alayhi Wasallam) even advised to maintain a balance in eating
and drinking as an imbalance could be harmful to health.
He advised having dates, being hot in nature with cucumber,
as it (cucumber) has a cooling effect. (Shamaail). On one
occasion, Rasulullah (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) even stopped
Hadhrat Ali (Radhiallaahu Anhu) from eating dates upon recovering
from his illness and advised him to have vegetables instead.
Although dates is not only nutritious but also a means of
obtaining blessing, but in certain conditions, since it could
be harmful, Rasulullah (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) advised
against it. From that, one can gauge the extent of abstaining
from cigarettes which contain many harmful ingredients, for
example, carbon monoxide, nicotine, tar and benzene vapour.
Therefore, smoking is harmful to the smoker as well as those
around him.
Consider the following: Muhammad Abdul Ghaffaar al-Afghan
in his book, 'Ninety nine harms of smoking' has said that
smoking results in many sicknesses which doctors have explained
and they all amount to ninety nine.
Doctor Salahuddeen Abdur-Rabbi Nabiy, a neuro surgeon in Cairo
says, 'When a person becomes enslaved to the habit of smoking,
it has a very harmful effect on the smoker's health, especially
to his heart. As a result hisheart beat and blood circulation
becomes unstable and he experiences drowsiness from time to
time due to the shrinking of his brain arteries.
Sometimes during old age, he suffers from high blood pressure
and angina. Similarly, his digestive and respiratory systems
are harmed and the smoker loses his appetite. He is also afflicted
by a cough which is known as the smoker's cough. When his
nervous system is affected the smoker feels a prickly sensation,
a numbness in his limbs and also a pain in the nerves.'
In the annual conference of the American Doctors Council which
took place in Chicago in 1966, the main topic discussed was
the harms of smoking. Doctors, who were aware of the role
that smoking played in lung cancer, became alarmed when they
heard that the least harm smoking causes is that it arouses
anxiety. Doctor Edward Kweller Hammond, head of statistics
in the Cancer Association of America said, "Verily lung
cancer which is caused by smoking cigarettes is not so serious
in comparison to the injury caused by smoking with other means."
It is stated in the ninth edition of "World of Knowledge"
magazine that the time has come wherein it has become necessary
to expose all the harms of smoking. It should also be realised
that these dispecable substances even cause death.
It is also necessary to elucidate the harms of smoking in
the hope of saving many intelligent and educated youth, who
will be astonished on how much has been written regarding
this topic. It is also stated in the above-mentioned magazine
under the following heading, "Cancer Caused by Smoking":
This fatal illness is the culmination of many illnesses which
are the result of thin blood and other sicknesses which are
related to the blood vessels.
All these are connected to this loathsome substances. However,
lung cancer is the most likely outcome of smoking.
Lung cancer was a very rare disease but the end of this century
witnessed a high rise in its occurence, primarily in men and
thereafter in women. In the beginning of the sixties, the
death rate due to lung cancer increased compared to before.
Smoking also yields other health hazards besides its general
and specific economic harms.
Proof for the prohibition of smoking.
Smoking did not exist in the time of Rasulullah (Sallallaahu
Álayhi Wasallam), but our magnificent Deen has laid
down general principles from which many laws are derived.
From these principles, the Ulama (Allah's mercy be upon them)
have come to the conclusion that smoking is Haraam.
An Aayaat of the Noble Qur'aan states, 'And do not throw yourself
into destruction with your own hands.' (Baqarah 195). Smoking
causes fatal sicknesses, for example, lung cancer, tuberculosis,
etc.
In another Aayat, Allah Ta'ala says, 'And do not kill yourselves'.
(Nisaa 29). Nabi Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam said, 'Whomsoever
drinks poison, hereby killing himself, will sip this poison
forever and ever in the fire of Jahannum.'
Cigarettes consist of many poisonous substances and furthermore,
the smoker indulges in a slow suicidal act by smoking this
poison.
And Allah Ta'ala Knows Best
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