format_quote Originally Posted by
adib1234
salaam to all
iv been a smoker since last 10 years and its a habit i tried to kick several times and i was successful but then after some time again i started.
i tend to smoke more when im tensed, so i wanna know what islamic rulings are there for smoking and how can i quit and stay quit
jazak allah khair.
Asalaamu Alaikum Wr Wb, brother jazakallah for sharing your concerns with us with wanting to give up this nasty habit.
What we have to first realise and establish in our minds is that there are absolutly NO benefits of smoking. There are ONLY harmful affects. Don't get decieved into thinking that smoking reduces your stress because i can tell you now it does NOT it actually makes stress worse because if you don't have a cigarrette when you need one then one ends up becoming cranky and groggy and one can end up getting frustrated, angry and snap very easily. I call that increasing stress!
Also one may have problems with relations with ones wife because of the fact that bloodflow is reduced therefore causing sexual disfunction. Another reason is that smoking causes breathing difficulties and reduces the scilly muscles in ones lungs which are a defense against infection and disease. Once they are destroyed then ones lungs will not have any defense left.
Brother one of my good freinds fathers developed throuat cancer because of smoking and his voicebox had to be removed and now he has to speak through an electronic voicebox and it is truly disturbing when one sees those cases. Im sure most of us know people who have died or who's healths have been affected by smoking.
Brother our body's have a right over us and if we don't fulfill the rights of our bodys then our bodys will not be able to function properly therefore our life in this world in which we ONLY have ONE chance will be wasted just because we could'nt control our desires!
Everytime you smoke then you will be ageing your skin and your elasticity will be getting reduced more and more. You will look old quicker. Aswell as ageing yourself externally it will also age you internally!
Brother after we have endured the short time we have in this world then we will have ETERNITY to be able to fulfill ANY desire we can EVER imagine in Paradise, but let us not destroy our ONE chance that we have in this world just for fulfilling a dirty habit with NO benefit.
If you truly want to give up then you got to want this 100% not 95% but 100%and say to yourself "I HAVE to give this up no matter what! I cannot ruin my one chance in this life and destroy myself because of this dirty habit".
Say this to yourself in your mind and connect ALL of the disadvantages of smoking, in fact even write it down. Write down ALL of the bad effects of smoking even including that "this world is a test and we only have one chance and if i continue smoking then i will destroy myself and body would'nt be able to function therefore I would waste my one opportunity i have in this life to do the best i can in this world to please Allah."
You will also save SO much money because remember we will be accountable for every penny we spent and Allah will question us where did you spend your moiney that i provided to you? Look around the world and look at the deprived people who have not been given much and we who have been given SO much are just wasting our money destroying ourselves!
Include ALL of the disadvantages and harmful affects and keep it with you and whenever you get cravings look at it and you will start to connect smoking with all these nasty effects which result from smoking and this would make you hate it! Build hate in yourself for smoking and NEVER look back brother but move forward with your life! You will have MORE money in your pocket and you will feel better than you have EVER felt!
Ask of Allah to help you and guide you and to give you the strength to give this filthy habit up but remember if you take the steps then Allah will help you but if you don't do nothing about it then Allah will not help you. Allah helps those who help themselves.
Once you have left it behind you i promise you will feel better than you have EVER felt and you will be able to breathe nice and deeply and have more energy in you to worship Allah! Also your skin will look fresher and brighter and you will feel better than you have ever felt before inshallah!
Consider this:
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 his heart beat and blood circulation becomes unstable and he experiences drowsiness from time to time due to the shrinkin 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 at 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 occurance, 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 ?layhi 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, thereby 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
Mufti Ebrahim Desai
FATWA DEPT.
Also another fatwa:
In the name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful,
The ruling on smoking cigarettes, cigars, etc..., will defer according to the reason and situation in which one smokes.
1) If one becomes intoxicated due to smoking and the tobacco therein, then it will be unlawful (Haram) to smoke. This is clear and needs no evidence, as intoxications have been explicitly declared unlawful (haram) in Islam.
2) If one smokes due to illness and the remedy is by smoking, then this is permissible, provided, there is no intoxication.
3) If one habitually smokes such an amount, from which serious harm may normally be feared, then it will be unlawful,
as Allah says in the Qur'an:
"And make not your own hands contribute to (your) destruction."
(Surah al-Baqarah, V: 195)
4) In the case of normal smoking (meaning, there is no intoxication and not to an amount which normally seriously damages the health of the person who is smoking), as is the case with most smokers in general, the ruling is deferred upon by the contemporary scholars.
The Fuqaha and scholars of Indo/Pak are of the view that, it is permissible, however disliked (makruh Tanzihan), provided one takes care of cleansing the mouth after smoking. They are well aware of the medical evidence, and take it into consideration. This is what we find in their major Fatawa books and this is the Fatwa issued by the famous Dar al-Uloom, Karachi, where this humble student studied.
However, the great scholars from the Arab world, (with whom I also studied) hold smoking to be Haram and sinful. This is because of its great individual and societal harms, which have been prohibited in the Qur'an, as indicated in the verse mentioned earlier .Such Fatwas have been given by scholars from all four Madhhabs.
Now, one may follow one of the two opinions, as both are from the great scholars of the world. However, to abstain and refrain from smoking is always advisable, no matter what the reason may be, as it waists money, health and eventually life.
And Allah Knows Best
Mufti Muhammad ibn Adam
Darul Iftaa
Leicester , UK