The Shaykh’s explanation of the prohibition of smoking and his advice to Muslims to fear Allah when seeking sustenance and in times of hardship and trial, and his mention of the hadith of the three men who were trapped in a cave, the story of the worshipper Jurayj and his mother, and the hadith of the clouds.

Abu Layli: In the name of Allah. It is well known that smoking is harmful, so what is its ruling in Islamic law? May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : First, from the perspective of social relations, you board a bus or a train, and you are one of those whom Allah has spared from smoking. When the bus or room fills with the foul smell of smoke, it becomes oppressive to those around you, yet he does not care. This foul smoke, when one of the scholars speaks about it in some detail, it may take half an hour or sometimes an hour to establish proof after proof and evidence after evidence that smoking it is forbidden, with no difference in that between the rich and the poor. Then one of the indifferent people in the gathering says, "My brother, if it is forbidden, we will burn it, and if it is lawful, we will drink it." You hear this often. This statement represents the reality in the Muslim world, except for those whom Allah wills, and they are few. Most of them do not fear Allah in their acquisition of their earnings and sustenance, even though the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to say , meaning: take the beautiful path and way, that is, the prescribed way, in seeking sustenance, because none of you will die until he has taken his full share of sustenance, leaving not even a single coin behind, just as he also takes his full lifespan when he dies, as Allah the Exalted said: . The "hour" in the verse is not the hour of the twenty-four hours, no, but the "hour" in the verse means the moment, meaning they do not delay by an hour, that is, a moment, nor do they advance. The point is, with all these divine commands and divine guarantees that a person will receive his sustenance whether he wills it or not, we are so concerned with this sustenance that we do not care whether it is lawful or forbidden, or the purpose for which we were created, which is to worship our Lord, and we have made that forgotten. You find Muslims like the disbelievers working day and night in the path of seeking what they think is the purpose for which they were created, which is the worship of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He. Therefore, many of the common Muslims, and even some of the elite, are ignorant of the true reason for which the Muslims fell into this humiliation, and this enslavement and colonization by the disbelievers all, and especially the Jews who occupied our lands. They do not know the reason; they say it is the divine decree and destiny, that Allah has written this upon us. Many of them criticize and object to Allah, saying, "What? Are the Jews better than us? We are Muslims, how did the Jews take our place in our lands?" That is due to their ignorance, for Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has in this universe laws, regulations, and systems. Whoever takes them will reach their goals, and whoever turns away from them will lag behind, whether in religion or in this world. And it is authentic from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: .

The questioner : Has this hadith been applied in this time?

The Shaykh : Yes, it is applied in this time. Apply it and be done with it. Apply it and be done with it. And the second hadith confirms it for you; he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: ... It is the Jews who occupied our lands. What do they want? "What do they want?" For the Muslims, is there more humiliation than being exploited by the most humiliated people? . And here they are exploiting us, the Muslims. Have we become the most humiliated people because we are noble, as our Lord, Mighty and Majestic, said in the Qur'an: ? No, the news of Allah does not delay. . But who are the believers? They are those who fear Allah and walk in His Shari'ah. Our calamity today is that we have turned away from the fundamental principle for which we were created, which is the worship of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He. Most of us do not worship Allah, and the few who worship Allah do not know how to worship Him.
In the name of Allah. Among the things we have forgotten, which are in the preserved Qur'an that Allah the Exalted has bestowed upon us, He said: . So, from what came in the Qur'an is . This verse has become as if it were abrogated from the Qur'an; it is not written to be read by Muslims night and day. But what is the benefit of the written Qur'an in the scrolls and mushafs that adorn the walls, while the hearts are empty of their thrones? Was the Qur'an revealed for us to adorn our houses with it? To recite it over our dead and keep it away from our living, applying it in practice? Allah the Exalted said: . So, the Qur'an was revealed for the living first, not for the dead. Then it was revealed for the living to act upon it, not to adorn their houses and walls with it. This verse is among what came in the Qur'an, but most Muslims, especially those whom Allah has blessed with some wealth, strive to preserve it and fear its loss or that it will be stolen from them. In particular, these people have forgotten this verse. ... This verse gives two very important matters for one who fears Allah. The first is that if he falls into hardship, He makes for him a way out. If his provision becomes narrow, He provides for him from where he does not expect. Today, if we fall into hardship, perhaps one of us will disbelieve in Allah the Exalted, and not turn to Allah, nor seek refuge in Him, nor seek nearness to Him by what He loves and is pleased with, as happened to some of those before us. Among those whom our Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) told us about is a story that happened to some of the nations who were before the sending of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). Our Prophet related the story to us so that we take it as a lesson and do not forget a verse like the previous one: . The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said about these people: . They were in a problem they feared, and then they encountered it. They were afraid that the rain would become heavy and turn into a flood, and they would be carried away with the flood. So they took refuge in a mountain to fortify themselves with it, and from the top of the mountain a huge rock came down that modern machines today cannot move. It was as if Allah placed it in front of the cave in which they were. They were three people. . They saw a mountain fall in front of them, and they were in the cave. Who will move the mountain? The One who brought it down: Lord of the worlds, Glorified and Exalted is He. But this man was a rational man, a believing, pious man. He said to his companions: . What does this man say? He says that he had some sheep, and he had two parents, a wife, and children. Every morning early, he would take the sheep and graze them, seeking the greenery, the plants, to graze the sheep. Apparently, he had to cover a long distance and did not find anything nearby. So he walked a long time, and when he returned, he did not reach the house until evening. And as was his good habit, which indicated his dutifulness to his parents, he would take the vessel in which he milked the milk, fill it with milk, and start with his parents before his family. So he milked first when he came from the wilderness, when he returned in the evening. He entered upon his parents and found them sleeping. What does this man do? He has a habit of starting with his parents by giving them drink before his wife and before his children. Now he faced a problem: his father and mother were sleeping, and his small children were crying from hunger. They had not had anything all day. He said: . He was standing confused. This reminds me of the story of the monk Jirjis. Jirjis the monk was in the Children of Israel, a worshipper and a righteous man. And the affair of the children of sin, as they say, the wicked and the open sinners, with the righteous, is that they always place stumbling blocks in their path. There was a shepherdess—a woman of ill character—who had intercourse with a man, and they agreed that she would accuse Jirjis the monk. The days passed until she gave birth, according to a planned scheme. She came when the people were gathered, as was the old custom... She said: , meaning by unlawful means. So they all rushed to his monastery and demolished it, the room in which he worshipped Allah. . When they saw the miracle, they knew who had a pure inner state. The people, naturally, were the scum of the people, meaning their wicked ones... They exposed this righteous man. When the others, who had been deceived, saw the miracle, they ran and built for him a dome of silver or gold or both, as expiation for their mistake. Why did our Lord test this man with this calamity, if our Lord had cleared him? Because one day in the monastery, while he was standing in prayer, his mother came knocking on the door while he was praying. She knocked on the door and he did not answer her. What was he saying in his heart? "O Lord, my prayer, my mother, my prayer, my mother." It did not occur to him that it is permissible to break the prayer in order to open the door for his mother. Like many mothers, especially mothers of the last age, they expose their children to the truth or the falsehood. She cursed him and said, "O Jirjis, may Allah not let you die until you see the faces of the prostitutes." Allah answered her supplication and decreed for him the story mentioned above. The point is that while he was in prayer, he said: . And that man said: . Until the miracle was completed, the second man stood up and said: "O Allah, if You know that I hired this third man..." The second man says: . And in some other authentic narrations: . Look at this jihad; first, he reached the fruit that he had been striving for for a long time, and it was resisting him. Second, it did not submit to him until he presented to it, with effort and toil, one hundred dinars. He did not care about all this. And when he mentioned it to Allah, he said: —a farq, meaning a measure of rice—. Imagine how many years this work took. He collected from it a basket of rice and a small number of sheep and cows. . This is an authentic hadith, not a story. It is a hadith in al-Bukhari and Muslim from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). It is not one of the stories you hear that Allah has not sent down authority for.

The questioner : Confirming your words on Friday, he related itThe Shaykh : in the mosque of al-Muraykh, just as you mentioned it verbatim.

The Shaykh : In His saying, the Exalted: . This is an image of the way out; how our Lord, in times of severity and hardship, finds for the Muslim a way out that does not cross his mind. Then He said: . And we have some authentic stories that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) told the Companions, and he also related them as an example that our Lord provides for His pious, believing servant from where he does not expect. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . For example, Ahmad ibn Abdullah, a voice from the sky that is not heard, with no airplanes or balloons or anything else.