At last the East has taken revenge on the West, and it’s in the form of the innocent-looking hookah. The East was always known for its excellent culture, its romantic perfumes, mouthwatering spices and its deep mysticism, but it seems that it now wants to improve on the filth that the West has given to the world. Already the East is beating the West when it comes to punchaat and underhand politics, but it still has a long way to catch up on the professional pornography of the West, its global network of lies and deceit in the form of propaganda, its answer to all the problems of society in the form of drugs and liquor and best of all, its crooked usury and capitalistic schemes that encourages people to spend their money before even owning it. So, the East had to come up with something to damage the West, and its called the hookah.
The hookah, unlike paan, khat and bidi, is an authentic Eastern invention that has not only destroyed the East, but has managed to find appeal in the West too. It’s no more fashionable to walk around with a drab-looking box of cigarettes tucked in your back pocket. Now, you have bright looking “bubbly flavours” in the form of strawberry and cream, coffee and muffins, and even steak and mushrooms, that resemble packets of candy! Since no one cares about their parents, elders or teachers anymore, there is no need to hide the cigarette behind their back when Maulana Ahmed rounds the corner. Now, you have bright looking hookah pipes, some as tall as the minaret of your local Masjid, with a bunch of youngsters merrily puffing on them in broad daylight, with that defiant look on their face which screams: “You dare open your mouth, and we’ll pounce on you like a pack of wolves!”
The hookah is more dangerous than cigarettes because of its added social appeal. It’s not fun to be puffing alone anymore, it must be done in company. Often youngsters, a mixture of boys and girls, are seen puffing away on street corners, at camping sites, and even on the hood of their vehicles in parking lots.
Flavours and hookah pipes can be bought from the most elite of malls nowadays, and even pensioners have made it part of their monthly shopping list. Added to this is the fact that the hookah can be today found in any shape. You have hookahs in the form of a soccer or a rugby ball, some are for Manchester United or Blue Bulls fans, whilst others come in the form of the tallest building in the world: the Burj al-Khalifah in Dubai. It seems that the smokers want to either get the feeling of being kicked around, or falling headlong to their death from the tallest building!
The social appeal of the hookah has been so alluring that we now have Sheesha Lounges springing up everywhere, including South Africa. The Sheesha Lounge, also known as the “The Muslim Club,” attracts more youth to it than to the Masjid on the Night of Power (Lailatul Qadr) in Ramadaan. After all, what do the youngsters find at the Masjid nowadays besides a set of carpets that hasn’t changed in the last 20 years or the Imam telling them the same things about worship and death. There is no music, no alcohol and drugs and no naked and drunk women to entertain themselves with.
In fact, the Sheesha Lounge has more hijab ladies and bearded men than the Masjids itself. So, this is the place to get your blood pumping, rather than relaxing your body and soul in the Masjid. Tranquillity and peace is attained only by remembering the Almighty. There is no short cut to worship and practicing good character. You can not “fool” yourself in to being happy by frequenting wrong places and doing wrong things. In England and many places of the Middle East, 16 and 17-year old girls come here in transparent clothing in order to parade their bodies to strange men so that a few sickos can fall in love with them and take them for a glory ride through the gutters. The thought of the Angel of Death visiting them at such evil venues does not even cross their minds. Such youngsters, many of whom are Huffaz or memorisers of the Qur’an, may think that they are in the moment when they mix lethal drugs in the hookah pipe. But remember like how you will never see a silk worm near a rotten apple, Muslims must never be even seen near places of immodesty and sin.
Danger to Health
The Hookah is more dangerous than a cigarette. Don’t let the argument of the smoke going through the water filtration fool you. The water is just there to make you giggle at the bubbles rolling through it. Studies have shown that even after the smoke has passed through water, it still contains high levels of toxic compounds, including carbon monoxide, metals and cancer-causing chemicals. In fact, a cigarette is much safer because it’s small filter traps more nicotine than a whole litre of water. Scientists have also discovered that cigarette smokers typically take 40-47 puffs over 5-7 minutes and inhale about 0.5 to 0.6 litres of smoke. In contrast, hookah smoking sessions typically last between 20 to 80 minutes, during which the smoker may take 50-200 puffs which range from about 0.15 to 1 litre of smoke each. The hookah user may therefore inhale as much smoke during one session as a cigarette smoker would inhale consuming 100 or more cigarettes.
In addition, every cigarette pack and every flavour pack has the same warning on it: “Warning: Smoking Causes Cancer.” But smokers out-logic this clear warning and hold themselves ransom to the same old self-defeating argument: “If I don’t smoke, I become grumpy and irritable.” Is grumpiness better, or the life-support machines in the ICU where only 2 litres of morphine can ease your excruciating pain? Is a few minutes of relaxation by smoke a day worth the thousands of rands in damage caused to your body? Smokers should note that for every puff of smoke they inhale, they are digging their own grave, one spadeful at a time!
The other argument to continue their bad habit is this: “Smoking is only makruh (reprehensible), its not haraam (forbidden).” Smoking has thus joined other items such as prawns, commercial chickens, fizzy drinks and Islamic finance where every two or three months a person will ask the same question: ”Is it allowed or not,” knowing fully well that if there is a doubt in anything, it’s better to abstain. Unlike fizzy drinks such as Coke and Pepsi whose poisonous ingredients are not well documented, doctors agree that there are literally dozens of poisonous substances in smoke, some of which are used in Rattex to poison rodents, some are used in jet fuel as a propellant and some in mothballs to kill insects. There is no doubt that all forms of smoking is forbidden in Islam, and the primary reason why smokers still persist in their smoking is that they fail to recognise the Majesty and Greatness of the Being Who has forbidden it.
But the biggest joke is still on the smoker, when he decides to quit. The same industry that produces tobacco, now produce E-Cigarettes and E-Shisha too, which is a bigger money-making scheme. One looks more foolish puffing on an E-Cigarette than a real cigarette. It’s like an adult dummy or pacifier. When an infant cries, we shove a dummy or a pacifier in to the baby’s mouth to give the illusion of feeding. Now an adult shoves a plastic tube into his mouth to give the impression of smoking. One needs to have logic of smoke to even think that false smoke will keep you away from real smoke! Smoke addicts have become nothing more than adult babies!!
If you want to quit, there is only one way of doing it. Recognise smoking as a sin, and the Greatness of the Being against whom you are sinning. Picture yourself as an ugly monster whilst puffing away, and a beautiful angel when you are not. Try it please.
I end with a quote from Oscar Wilde: “I must admit that I smoke. A man should always have an occupation of some kind. There are far too many idle people as it is.”