smoking

SMOKING IS HARAM..

In his book, “Halal and Haram in Islam,” prominent Muslim scholar, Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qardawi, said that smoking is haram.

Prof. Su`aad Abdullah Saleh, head of Jurisprudence Department, Al-Azhar University said that: "Tobacco is haram because it causes a lot of harm. Accordingly, working in tobacco companies is haram for it assists in spreading and producing a haram thing.

Another Muslim scholar, Mufti Ibrahim Desai, said: “It is a universally accepted that smoking has many serious health and life hazards amongst which is lung cancer. These hazards affect not only the smoker himself but those around him as well. Shari`ah has stressed the importance of being in good health to the extent that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, even advised Muslims in all ages to strike a balance in eating and drinking to evade any harmful effects on the health. He advised having dates, being hot in nature, with cucumber, as it (cucumber) has a cooling effect.

“It is clear that cigarettes contain many harmful ingredients, for example, carbon monoxide, nicotine, tar and benzene vapor.

“Lung cancer was a very rare disease but the end of this century witnessed a high rise in its occurrence, primarily in men and thereafter in women. In the beginning of the sixties, the death rate due to lung cancer increased highly. Smoking also yields other health hazards besides its general and specific economic harms.

“Smoking did not exist in the time of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, but our great religion of Islam has laid down general principles from which many laws are derived. From these principles, Muslim scholars have come to the conclusion that smoking is prohibited (Haram).

“In the Qur’an, we read: “be not cast by your own hands to ruin; and do good. Lo! Allah loveth the beneficent.” (Al-Baqarah:195). Smoking causes fatal sicknesses, for example, lung cancer, tuberculosis, etc.

“In another verse, Almighty Allah says: “And do not kill yourselves.” (An-Nisaa’: 29). The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, is reported to have said: “Whomsoever drinks poison, thereby killing himself, will sip this poison forever in the Hell-Fire.”