The Ruling on Trading in Tobacco and Smoking It

Question:
What is Your Eminence’s opinion on trading in tobacco, importing it, selling it, and buying it?

Answer:
Tobacco is a known matter, may Allah preserve you. Tobacco is forbidden and an abomination. Therefore, importing it and trading in it are among the forbidden things and a harm to the Muslims. It is trading in what Allah has forbidden. So selling it is forbidden, its price is forbidden, and directing people to it is forbidden. All of this is an abomination, and smoking it is forbidden, we seek refuge in Allah. In both, there are countless harms. There are many harms that both disbelievers and Muslims have mentioned. Doctors from among both disbelievers and Muslims have mentioned them and explained its great harm and its inherent filth. Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, only permitted good things. He, Glorified and Exalted is He, said: and it is not among the good things. And He, Glorified and Exalted is He, said: and He forbids them in describing His Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). So tobacco, intoxicants, hashish, and the narcotic and intoxicating drugs with which people have been filled recently, all of these are forbidden. It is not permissible in them, nor is it permissible to direct people to them, nor to sell and buy them. Rather, all of this is forbidden, and it is all trading in what Allah has forbidden and in what harms Allah’s servants. It is obligatory for the state to put an end to these matters with all firmness and all strength, so that it frees people and keeps people safe from a great evil and a major affliction. And, praise be to Allah, it has published [regulations] regarding the drugs and graves, and we ask Allah to help it with all good. But tobacco remains. We ask Allah to help it to prohibit it strictly and put an end to it by every means, so that people are saved from its evil and affliction.

Answer:
Likewise, shaving beards: they take a fee for shaving beards, and may Allah protect us from the forbidden things. It is among the forbidden and ugly things for them to shave people's beards and take money for it, to disobey Allah and take money for disobeying Allah. Shaving the beard is forbidden and wrong, even without a fee; the one who does it is a sinner and an enabler of transgression. If he takes a fee for it, it is even worse.