Advice to Smokers
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Question : The questioner asks: Does smoking affect 'Umrah? And what is your advice for smokers in this noble month?
Answer : Yes. Whether smoking affects 'Umrah or not depends on one thing: is smoking forbidden or permissible? It is forbidden. Do you know what smoking is? Yes, indeed. It is not like using incense, where a person just gets some smoke from it, right? Smoking is forbidden and a sin against Allah. Because Allah the Exalted said:[An-Nisa 4:29]. And the smoker of tobacco.
The tobacco will destroy him, except in rare cases. Therefore, doctors now agree that it is one of the causes of cancer, and cancer—may Allah protect us and you from diseases from which recovery is not expected. In smoking, there is also the waste of water. Because the... for four riyals. For five riyals. For three riyals. A person can finish it in two days. Is that not so? Yes?
Three a day means twelve riyals a day, while his family's bread is one riyal. So there is a waste of money. In smoking, there is also the disfigurement of the teeth, mouth, and lips, to the extent that if a man looks closely, he can recognize a smoker without asking about him, by what he sees of the deformity of his lips and teeth. And in smoking...
The heaviness of worship on the smoker, especially fasting. Because in fasting, he has not smoked all day, so it becomes heavy for him. And in smoking, there is the dislike of sitting with the committed, because if he sits with them, he refrains from smoking, and you find him reluctant to sit with the people of religion, because if he stays and does not smoke, his freedom is restricted, and if he smokes, he restricts the freedom of the others. The evidence for this is multiple, but I say that I am certain now that it is forbidden.
And if it is forbidden, then Allah the Exalted said:[Al-Baqarah 2:197] And what? [Al-Baqarah 2:197] So smoking during Hajj or 'Umrah diminishes the reward for the Hajj and 'Umrah. And my advice to my brothers who have been afflicted with it is that they seek Allah's help to quit it with sincere determination and earnestness, and that they do not keep the company of anyone who smokes. Perhaps Allah the Exalted, if He knows that their intention is sincere, will help them to quit it, as has happened to many people.
Answer : Yes. Whether smoking affects 'Umrah or not depends on one thing: is smoking forbidden or permissible? It is forbidden. Do you know what smoking is? Yes, indeed. It is not like using incense, where a person just gets some smoke from it, right? Smoking is forbidden and a sin against Allah. Because Allah the Exalted said:
And do not kill yourselves [or one another]
وَلَا تَقْتُلُوا أَنفُسَكُمْThe tobacco will destroy him, except in rare cases. Therefore, doctors now agree that it is one of the causes of cancer, and cancer—may Allah protect us and you from diseases from which recovery is not expected. In smoking, there is also the waste of water. Because the... for four riyals. For five riyals. For three riyals. A person can finish it in two days. Is that not so? Yes?
Three a day means twelve riyals a day, while his family's bread is one riyal. So there is a waste of money. In smoking, there is also the disfigurement of the teeth, mouth, and lips, to the extent that if a man looks closely, he can recognize a smoker without asking about him, by what he sees of the deformity of his lips and teeth. And in smoking...
The heaviness of worship on the smoker, especially fasting. Because in fasting, he has not smoked all day, so it becomes heavy for him. And in smoking, there is the dislike of sitting with the committed, because if he sits with them, he refrains from smoking, and you find him reluctant to sit with the people of religion, because if he stays and does not smoke, his freedom is restricted, and if he smokes, he restricts the freedom of the others. The evidence for this is multiple, but I say that I am certain now that it is forbidden.
And if it is forbidden, then Allah the Exalted said:
Hajj is [during] well-known months, so whoever has made Hajj obligatory upon himself therein [by entering the state of ihram], there is [to be for him] no sexual relations and no disobedience and no disputing during Hajj. And whatever good you do - Allah knows it. And take provisions, but indeed, the best provision is fear of Allah. And fear Me, O you of understanding.
فَمَن فَرَضَ فِيهِنَّ الْحَجَّ فَلَا رَفَثَno disobedience and no disputing during Hajj
وَلَا فُسُوقَ وَلَا جِدَالَ فِي الْحَجِّ
Source
قناة «فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين»، لقاء[6 من 29] نصيحة للمدخنين - الشيخ ابن عثيمين - مشروع كبار العلماء — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.