The late Dr Al-Hussaini Abdulmajid Hashem

Former Deputy Rector

of Al-Azhar

    Praise be to God and peace and blessings be upon the best of prophets, our Master Muhammad, his family and companions.

    Before passing judgment on smoking we consider it best to explain the keen interest Islam has in health especially in the light of the serious effects of smoking on the health of human beings.

    Islam takes an interest in the care of the human body and the need to maintain it in good working condition. It regulates one's eating and drinking habits in accordance with an orderly pattern. God, says: Eat and drink but never dissipate (7:31). The thing that catches the eye in this Islamic plan of personal hygiene is the attention it pays to purity. As part of purity one is required to perform ablution and have ceremonial baths. Such state of purity activates various parts of the body and provides them with the necessary protection against microbes. God says: O you who believe! When you rise to pray wash your faces and hands as far as the elbows, rub your heads with water and wash your feet up to the ankles (5:6). Taking good care of the body and stressing health protection are manifested in the following verses from the Holy Quran: Do not with your own hands cast yourselves into destruction (2:159). Kill not yourselves, for verily God has been to you Most Merciful (4:29).

    Smoking leads to self-destruction, against which Islam has strongly warned. It incurs a waste of money and Islam forbids excessive expenditure. It irritates the throat and it fouls the breath, in addition to its other health hazards.

    Using the siwak (toothstick) is recommended by Islam. The Prophet PBUH says: "The siwak purifies the mouth and is a means to win God's pleasure" (narrated by Ahmad, Al-Nasa'i and Al-Tirmithi). Islam forbids anything that may cause physical or mental harm. The Prophet PBUH says: "Do not harm yourself or others".

    Apologists for smoking claim that it soothes tense nerves, eases psychological strain and helps cure certain ailments. Yet, these claims are nothing but a figment of the imagination. The fact of the matter is that smoking is a malady and not a cure.

    The emphasis placed by Islam on health care is proof of the attention Islam pays to physical fitness. A believer who is strong is better and dearer to God than a believer who is weak. There is no denying that health is one of the greatest graces which humans are blessed with. Thus people have a duty to preserve it and thank God for it. The Prophet PBUH says: "There are two blessings which many people do not appreciate: health and leisure" (narrated by Al-Bukhari). In another saying the Prophet PBUH states that: "Whoever of you wakes up in the morning and finds that he is in good health, secure among his own people and in possession of enough food for the day, is as one who owns the entire world".

    Since Islam takes so much interest in promoting good health, and since smoking is so harmful to the health of man, then it must be ruled impermissible. This ruling is further justified by the fact that smoking adversely affects productivity, since its bad effects on health sap the energy of smokers. The tar that is in smoke may cause cancer while the nicotine increases blood coagulation. Furthermore, smokers can easily develop chronic infection of the respiratory tract.

    Smoking hazards are not restricted to smokers only. Those who regularly inhale smoke by coming into close contact with smokers (children, other family members and friends) are in danger of developing chronic bronchitis. In the case of pregnant women smoking hazards are passed on by the mother to her unborn child, causing what is known as intra-uterine growth retardation.

    Statistics compiled on smoking hazards show that the death rate before the age of 65 is twice as high among smokers as among nonsmokers. The incidence of lung cancer is 70 to 90 times more among smokers than nonsmokers. The ratio of smokers to nonsmokers among those who absent themselves from work is as high as 3:1.

    Smoking is closely associated with peptic ulcer and blood circulation malfunction. Women smokers reach menopause at an earlier age then nonsmokers. Furthermore, smoking is incompatible with contraceptives. A woman who smokes and is on the pill at the same time risks malformation of the fetus.

The Islamic ruling on smoking

    Having reviewed the bad effects of smoking, the health hazards associated with it, and its role as a cause of disease and a waste of the health and wealth of the individual, as well as a considerable share of the national economy, we declare that smoking is haram.

    If smoking was declared in the past by some scholars as abominable rather than outright impermissible that was because detailed information about its actual health hazards were not fully known at the time. Science had not then discovered how damaging to health smoking could be, and that it caused countless number of perilous diseases, such as cancer of the mouth, the oesophagus, the lungs and the urinary bladder, as well as blood clots and other diseases.

    Undoubtedly Islam holds smoking impermissible on account of the aforesaid hazards which could lead to self-destruction. God, says: Do not with your own hands cast yourselves into destruction (2:195).

    Furthermore a measure of extravagance and waste is involved in smoking. Islam forbids waste. God says: Eat and drink but never dissipate (7:31). He also says: But squander not your wealth in the manner of a spendthrift. Verily squanderers are Satan's brothers (17:27).

    As has already been mentioned smoking is harmful to the health of smokers as well as to their associates and members of their families. Any such thing that could cause damage or harm is considered impermissible in Islam. The Prophet PBUH says: "Cause not harm either to yourself or to others".

    Smoking exposes smokers to the most dangerous and deadly diseases, and pushes them to the abyss of total destruction and this goes counter to God's command: Kill not yourselves (4:29). Likewise, smoking has a devitalizing effect which saps the energy. Such a state of affairs is rejected by the Prophet PBUH who speaks against all intoxicants and devitalizers. There is no doubt that a smoker feels intoxicated and devitalized during and after smoking. He also feels restive, nervous and devitalized when he does not have access to tobacco.

    In his book, Essays and religious opinions, Sheikh Yusuf al-Dijwi, member of the Senior Ulema Group, says:

Modern scholars are not in one mind as to how smoking ought to be classified. Some of them have ruled that it is permissible; others have judged it impermissible. The fact of the matter is that passing an unreserved verdict on smoking one way or the other is not the right thing to do. A sweeping judgment which permits or forbids smoking would only overstate or understate the case. Far better is to study cases of smoking one at a time to determine the effects which smoking has on the particular individual under consideration.

Any one whose health is adversely affected by smoking must be forbidden to smoke, for taking good care of the human body is made mandatory under all articles of faith and laws. Those who are not physically affected by smoking but need the money they spend thereon for their own maintenance or to support their dependents must be forbidden to smoke. On the other hand there is no point in forbidding smoking if it causes neither physical harm nor financial hardship. Whether it does or not is a matter to be decided by a doctor in the case of physical harm and by the person himself in the case of financial hardship.

There are those who would claim that smoking is absolutely impermissible on account of the fact that it is an innovation, that every innovation is an error and that every error is punishable in hell. Yet they are mistaken. The innovation which is considered forbidden by religious law is that type of thing the permissibility of which has not been stipulated for one finds nothing to vouch for it either in the Quran, the sunna, by analogy, or any other criteria specified by the Muslim scholars. The claim that everything novel is forbidden is rather absurd. The very clothing we wear and lots of other things were unknown at the time of the Prophet PBUH or the time of His Companions, or the generation that followed.(1)

    There is no longer any doubt as to the health hazards caused by smoking. Modern science and medicine have proved smoking to be a major cause of some of the most serious diseases such as cancer, blood clotting and a great deal more. Some smokers are affluent and they claim that they are not at all bothered by smoking, from the financial point of view. But they must be made to understand that money paid for tobacco products is a waste. This means profitless expenditure, or placing something where it is not needed. Smoking, as such, is but a form of waste. Therefore, Islam forbids it. God says: But squander not your wealth in the manner of a spendthrift. Verily squanderers are Satan's brothers (17:27).

    In the light of the evidence so far, the conclusion is that smoking is haram and that Muslims have a duty to fight against this deadly habit. Those who are in affluent conditions had better invest their money in useful projects and to the benefit of the poor and the needy. We would like to say to the vast majority of our workers and young men who smoke, numerous as they are:

    "The money you pay for tobacco is wasted and misplaced, a form of extravagance and squander; and Islam prohibits extravagance and squandering, and by smoking you expose your health to serious hazards, and that too is not tolerated by Islam. Therefore, you must give up this bad and harmful habit and turn to God in repentance. Giving up smoking should not prove difficult. Smokers may take heart from the fact that people are able in Ramadan to go without not only smoking but also eating, drinking and other pleasurable things".

    I address myself to every Muslim, man or woman, young or old, urging them to stop smoking and turn to God in repentance. Smoking is indeed tantamount to the destruction of health and slow death. It is considered impermissible on account of the following divine injunctions: Eat and drink but never dissipate (7:31), And do not with your own hands cast yourselves into destruction (2:195). And the fact that the Messenger of God tells all Muslims to beware of all intoxicants and devitalizers and asks them not to cause harm either to themselves or to others.