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QUESTION: Is smoking cigarettes, cigars and pipe haraam? ANSWER: 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

Muhammad ibn Adam
Darul Iftaa
Leicester, UK

[Source: Darul Iftaa]