Cigarette Smoking: Is it Haraam (Forbidden)? Find out here

By Shais

1. Introduction
2. Statistics by World Health Organization (WHO) on smoking
3. What does Islam say?
4. Fatwas (verdict) of top Muslim scholars on smoking

1. Introduction

Many Muslims today are confused whether smoking is haraam (forbidden) or its only Makrooh (discouraged). Many think that it is only discourage and they continue to smoke. Before we analyze whether it is really forbidden or not, lets look at some of the statistics

2. Statistics by World Health Organization (WHO) on smoking

• 4 million people die every year due to cigarette smoking
• 15 billion cigarettes are sold everyday and about 10 million every minute in the world
• About 12 times more British people have died from smoking than from World War II.
• Smoking is the single largest preventable cause of disease and premature death. It is a prime factor in heart disease, stroke and chronic lung disease. It can cause cancer of the lungs, larynx, oesophagus, mouth, and bladder, and contributes to cancer of the cervix, pancreas, and kidneys.
• More than 4,000 toxic or carcinogenic chemicals have been found in tobacco smoke.

The above mentioned are the statistics by World Health Organization (WHO). For more, read this

http://www.wpro.who.int/media_centre/fact_sheets/fs_20020528.htm

3. What does Islam say?

As we just saw, there are over 4 million deaths in the world every year due to cigarette smoking. It is nothing but slow poisoning. The Holy Qur’an says

“and make not your own hands contribute to (your) destruction;” (Qur’an 2:195)

“Nor kill (or destroy) yourselves:” (Quran 4:29)

as we just established from the statistics that smoking is nothing but slow poisoning. Allah forbids us from harming ourselves. Moreover, suicide is strictly haraam in Islam. The Prophet (pbuh) said

“And whoever commits suicide with piece of iron will be punished with the same piece of iron in the Hell Fire." Narrated Jundab the Prophet said, "A man was inflicted with wounds and he committed suicide, and so Allah said: My slave has caused death on himself hurriedly, so I forbid Paradise for him." (Sahih Bukhari Volume 2, Hadith 445)

“The Prophet said, "He who commits suicide by throttling shall keep on throttling himself in the Hell Fire (forever) and he who commits suicide by stabbing himself shall keep on stabbing himself in the Hell-Fire." (Sahih Bukhari, Volume 2, Hadith 446)

By extension, we can say that whoever kills himself with smoking will keep killing himself with it in hell-fire.

Smoking also causes bad breathe. The Prophet forbade the people who ate garlic and onion from entering the mosque.

“The Prophet said, "Whoever has eaten garlic or onion, should keep away from us, or should keep away from our mosque and should stay at home." (Sahih Bukhari, Volume 9, Hadith 458)

Moreover, passive smoking is more dangerous than active smoking i.e. the smoke that you exhale out, if someone else inhales that, it is more dangerous. Islam is strictly against harming other people for no reason. Personally, I am very allergic to the smoke of cigarette. I cannot even sit with the person while he is smoking. Does Islam allow you to cause trouble to others for no good reason?

Even Non-Muslims today tell us that it is not good to smoke and we shouldn’t smoke. In most countries of the world, there is a law that you must put on the box of cigarettes, something like “smoking is injurious to health”. In many countries of the world, smoking is banned in public places and public transport.

In short, Cigarette smoking is not only Makrooh in Islam as some Muslims perceive but its haraam (forbidden) to smoke cigarettes. We Pray to Allah that may he keep us away from this bad habit.

4. Fatwas (verdict) of top scholars of the world

Now I’ll mention the names of some of the top scholars of the world who have issued the fatwa (verdict) that smoking is haraam. I already gave the reasons above.

i) Sheikh Abdul Aziz Abdullah ibn Baz (Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia from 1993-1999)

ii) Sheikh Muhammad Al Uthaymeen

iii) Shaykh Abu Bakr Jabir al-Jazairi a Professor in Islamic University of Madinah and a famous teacher in Masjid an-Nabawi

iv) Ibn Hajr

v) Shaykh Muhammad al-'Aini

vi) Shaykh Mahmuud Syaltuut, a former Dean at the University of al-Azhar wrote:

vii) Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradhawi a well known Da'i and scholar

viii) Sulayman Bujayrmi, a Shafi'i scholar

ix) Sheikh Gadul Haq Ali Gadul Haq, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar

The list can go on, but I think these are enough to convince any truthful and sincere Muslim.

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