What is the ruling on smoking?

The Shaykh : Now we move on to Abu Saleh’s question.
Smoking is widespread among Muslims today, just as opium and hashish are widespread among Americans. What is the reason? And upon you be peace. The reason is that the scholars are not fulfilling their duty, if there are truly scholars there. Because there is one scholar who is called a scholar in our region of the Levant, but he is one of those followers of taqlid (following a scholar without knowing his evidence) who do not follow the Book and the Sunnah. Shafi'i, Shafi'i, Hanafi, Hanafi, and so on. Under the pressure of precise, correct scientific discussion, what did he say? He said: The truth is, we have no scholars today; we have scholars in a figurative sense. What does "figurative" mean? It means there are no real scholars. This was admitted by a doctor.
The point is: Suppose there are scholars in this world, in Syria, in Jordan, and so on. Fine. Why are they not fulfilling the duty of awareness? Do not eat with your left hand—my brother—eat with your right hand, please. Do not drink with your left hand, drink with your right hand. Why? We sometimes hear this: Allah created this and created that. We tell him: The one who created this commanded you to eat with it, and the one who created that commanded you to cooperate with it, and commanded you to clean yourself with it and not with that, and commanded you to blow your nose with it and not with that. What is the meaning of this philosophy that Allah created both? Yes, He created both, but He created a specific function for each thing. This is a matter of what? The philosophy of the subject is logically sound; because he is telling you: Allah created both. And we answer him with the answer, but we support our answer with the correct transmission from the Messenger (peace be upon him): , eat with the right hand and drink with the right hand. So if the scholars were fulfilling the duty of awareness, I do not see a person eating with the left hand at all. Because he is indifferent whether he ate with this or that; because there is no preference here. Now, the issue of smoking is different. Smoking has a preference, there is a conflict between it and the self that commands evil. But whether he drinks from this cup with the right hand or with the left, the value is the same in terms of physical strength or psychological state.

Another questioner : No preference.

The Shaykh : Ah, but smoking, the truth is, the cunning of smoking is that it does to its user what opium does. It intoxicates him and stamps him with the mark of loving to smoke. Because there is the substance you hear about, which they call nicotine. So this substance is an intoxicant. We, Abu Saleh, say: Smoking is not permissible in any way, rather it is forbidden.

Another questioner : Smoking, is this the one that has nicotine, or smoking...?

Another questioner : All of it, all of it.

Another questioner : ... I mean... they pick it from this...?

The Shaykh : What is the other smoking?

Another questioner : This comes... on their hands.

The Shaykh : This is the mother of all evils. From here comes smoking.
...

The Shaykh : The important thing is smoking.

Another questioner : My master, if you please, here is a point.

The Shaykh: Go ahead.

Another questioner : Is it a definitive prohibition, or is it disliked as they say? Many people say it is disliked, not forbidden.

The Shaykh : No, my master, it is forbidden.

Another questioner : Because scholars or sheikhs...

The Shaykh : Say it is disliked.

Another questioner : ... They are sheikhs—no offense—bearded, following the Sunnah, giving Friday sermons on the minbars, and they smoke. And I asked them several questions, and they say: My brother, it is disliked. Fine. How is it disliked, when so-and-so in the world says about it: forbidden, and you say about it: disliked. Where did you get the dislike from?

The Shaykh : Look, Abu Saleh, you...

Another questioner : I am really focusing on this in a way, meaning when I asked Shaykh Nuh—may Allah reward you and him with good—

The Shaykh : He told you: Disliked.

Another questioner : He told me: No, definitely forbidden.

The Shaykh : Shaykh Nuh.

Another questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Fine. Who said: Disliked?

Another questioner : Shaykh Nuh Ali al-Salman told me: Disliked, definitely forbidden. Shaykh Ali al-Faqir told me: Forbidden. Dr. Khalil Humayd, I asked him even in the mosque during the Friday sermon, and he told me: Definitely forbidden.

The Shaykh : Who told you: Disliked?

Another questioner : The ones who smoke.

Another questioner : Like whom? One of the sheikhs was told: Is smoking forbidden or lawful? He said: Do not ask one who is smoking, and I am one of those who smoke, do not ask us.

The Shaykh : And another, or a third, or a fourth, I do not know his number, was asked and said: If it is forbidden, we burned it, and if it is lawful, we smoked it [everyone laughs!].
The important thing.

Another questioner : So we want to hear from you too.

Another questioner : A detail in the issue?

The Shaykh : One of the smart scholars we have in Syria was asked about smoking. He brought this nice poem in Rajaz meter, but it needs some explanation. He said:
The original ruling in it is permissibility by law, and the prohibition of it is absolute ugliness.
And a long disagreement came from them, and the clear, relied-upon view is the detailed one.
If it harms him in mind or body, or if he is in dire necessity for the price,
Its use is forbidden, otherwise it is permissible in our law and lawful.
But excessive use of it is distracting, and its foul smell is prohibited from it.
Their struggle in it is a struggle against desire, their silence and their prohibition of it are equal.
Rather, it may incite a young man who is obsessed with smoking and make him underestimate the expense.
And the end of the speech in it is that it is from plants, and it is all lawful,
Except that which harms the bodies or the intellect, for that is a different matter.
Allah has informed us. Here is the point.
Allah has informed us, then the Chosen One, about the honey of the bee that it is a healing.
Even though it harms the one with a fever *** And the prohibition of the harmful is from the known
Honey is a healing for people by the text of the Qur'an, but if the one with a high fever drinks it, it will harm him. And it is honey, which is not permissible to use in this state. But the nature of smoking is harm, not like honey.

Another questioner : All of it is harm.

The Shaykh : Yes, all of it is harm.

Another questioner : There is no benefit at all.

The Shaykh : So your question is: Is this a definitive prohibition? My brother, the prohibition is definitive. Why? Because the Messenger (peace be upon him), in his concise speech which is counted among eloquence, in the place of two words, entered under it hundreds of issues: ; do you see? , what is the meaning of ? And what is the difference between ? No harm to yourself and no harm to another, no harm and no causing harm to others, do not harm yourself and do not harm another. These two harms are realized in the smoker. And if you want to recall it, look at a car, even a large bus, two or three, the car does not distinguish who is beside you or in front of you or behind you. Is this not harm?

Another questioner : Greater harm, the greatest harm.

The Shaykh: Glory be to Allah!

Another questioner : If there is one sitting there in the corner, you are there and I am here... there, I am harmed by him, I personally am harmed by him.

The Shaykh : This is the truth. Yesterday, not long ago, yesterday I came from the Maghrib prayer and got out of my car in front of the house. I noticed a person standing on the road in front of my house, with two boys. I was surprised at his standing. When I opened the door and got into the car, and he was coming behind me. He said to me: I am a poor man and my leg is broken, and the festival has entered, and I have children and so on, and so forth. What was my answer? The money you are spending on smoking, save it and spend it on these boys. I do not know the man, but he is speaking and is like the viper that spits poison in your face. This is the greatest harm. These smokers are not aware of it, and I do not blame them; because there are no remindders, there is no one to warn them.
And I will tell you something else that is important. The mufti tells you: it is forbidden. But he does not come to give a lecture to this person who is afflicted with smoking so that he becomes saturated with the fact that smoking is forbidden, just as he became saturated physically with the smoke. Let him become saturated spiritually that what he is afflicted with is forbidden. Where does the prohibition come from? The prohibition comes from the harm itself, and the prohibition comes from the harm to others, and this harm to others is completely clear. I am bringing you examples; my eldest son, whose name is 'Abd al-Rahman, and I am known as Abu 'Abd al-Rahman, when the time for mandatory military service came in Damascus, he did not smoke, and none of my sons smoke, by the grace of Allah, let alone anything else. He went to the military and would be absent for months, may Allah will it, and then come back. The first thing I smelled there was the smell of smoke. Of course, after we had written to him and told him that this is harmful to his religion and his worldly life, and so on, may Allah the Mighty and Majestic guide him and he repented. What did he say to me—and this is a real example? He said to me: "O my father, when I was smoking, when they would make us do some military exercises, including running, they would put a target on a hill or a mountain, and they would say, 'Now let's see, run!' He said: 'I would not reach this hill or this plateau without being almost dead from shortness of breath. When we quit smoking, I started running like a gazelle and I did not feel any fatigue.' These are tangible things, my brothers; so the harm of smoking does not need proof, nor does it need broadcasts from America and Europe that among its effects is lung cancer and so on.

Another questioner : They are writing about it too.

The Shaykh : Ah, they are writing about it, and now a new step from America: smoking is forbidden on airplanes. Look at the misguidance! Intoxicants are permissible, and smoking has become forbidden! Why? Because smoking is harmful to others. That one is smoking.

Another questioner : It harms himself and that is all.

The Shaykh : Do you see how it is?! Because they do not have a Shari'ah, they have experiments; experiments sometimes mislead them and sometimes open things up for them, and so on. After long and extensive experiments, it turned out for them that indeed smoking is very harmful, even for the one who does not smoke but inhales the air saturated with smoke; even these people are harmed; this has been scientifically established, meaning; therefore, they have now forbidden smoking on airplanes. A time will come when we, the imitators, the deaf and dumb Muslims, who must be clear-sighted about their religion, since Europe and America have forbidden smoking on airplanes, what must we do? We must forbid it.
... .

The Shaykh : Now, about smoking, allow me to finish; because the time will become...