Is smoking forbidden, and what is the evidence from the Book and the Sunnah?

The questioner : Is smoking forbidden, and what is the evidence for that from the Book and the Sunnah?

The Shaykh : There is no doubt in the prohibition of smoking. Listen, my brothers, smoking is forbidden for many reasons. First, it harms the self, and this harm to the self has two forms: harm to the body and harm to wealth. Then, the harm to the body extends to others, and the prohibition becomes higher and multiplied. Any sin, whether the sinner commits it in secret or openly before people, if he commits it in secret, he is disobedient to Allah once, and if he commits it openly, he is disobedient to Allah twice. The reason for this is that the contagion of his sin transfers to others, so others are harmed by his sin in their own selves. Likewise, the smoke that a person inhales does not limit itself to harming his own self and wealth, but its harm extends to others. This is called in the language of the Arabs *idrar* (harming others), as opposed to harm that concerns oneself. Therefore, he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: So it is not permissible for a Muslim to harm himself, let alone that it is not permissible for him to harm others. The smoker combines two evils: the evil of harming himself, as detailed previously, materially and physically, and the evil of harming others. I do not mean by harming others here someone who declares, "I am a smoker," or who declares smoking in front of people; that is clear. But with this smoke that he emits into the clear, pure air, he harms others. It is known now from news and medical magazines that the cause of the harm of smoking to the body of the user is due to the latent substance in it, which they call nicotine. They say that this smoke which the smoker exhales contains the substance of nicotine. So these innocent people, whom Allah has purified from drinking smoke, are forced by this smoker to smell it and swallow some of this nicotine substance against their will. Thus, he combines the two calamities in the hadith: harm to himself and harm to others. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his companions), out of his gentleness and mercy for his Ummah, came to them with all good and warned them of all evil. The matter reached the point where he forbade a Muslim from consuming lawful food that has a bad smell if it is obligatory for him to attend a gathering where the attendees would smell that bad smell from him. He forbade him from this lawful food so that he would not annoy others with the smell of the lawful food. You know, of course, what this food is: garlic and onions. So he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the authentic hadith: So it is as if the Messenger (peace be upon him) is saying, "O Muslim who prays, do not eat food containing garlic or onions and then attend the mosque. Eat all the food containing garlic and onions before you attend the mosque. But if you eat this food just before attending the mosque, we are in no need of your presence in the mosque, even though attending the mosque is obligatory for him, obligatory for him like the prayer itself. He (peace be upon him) did not limit himself to this guidance but applied it practically. One day he entered the Prophet's Mosque and smelled the smell of garlic from one of them, so he ordered him to be taken out of the mosque. And where to? To al-Baqi', to the cemetery. As if he is indicating by this practical enforcement that a Muslim who attends the mosques of Muslims while carrying a bad smell in his mouth that annoys the worshippers, it is not befitting for him to live with the worshippers, nor even with the living who are outside the mosque, but rather he should live with the dead in the cemeteries. Imagine if the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) were in our time and entered the mosque and smelled the smell of a person praying next to him or behind him, the smell of garlic and onions, he could have sent him to Mars, not just the cemetery. Why? Because he is harming the Muslims. Not with food that has benefit; doctors today mention the benefits of onions and garlic, things that are strange and very unusual. On the contrary, they now mention the harms of smoking, such as this malignant disease, cancer, which they name. If the smell of beneficial food, due to its bad smell in the mosque, led to him being taken out to al-Baqi', then what if he smelled the smell of a smoker who harms himself, harms his wife, and harms his children? And it is amazing to see some fathers addicted to smoking; if they see their son smoking, they scold him. He has the right to scold him, but he has no right to scold him. Why? Because he is a bad role model for him. Why does he not stop? He grew up with this ailment, a dire ailment. Therefore, there is no doubt or ambiguity in the Shari'ah that smoking is forbidden. Perhaps its prohibition, in terms of its bad effects, is more severe than alcohol, whose prohibition came by the explicit text of the Noble Qur'an. And the forbidden things in the Shari'ah are not necessarily all by texts that every Muslim shares in understanding. For example, these narcotics that have spread in the lands of disbelief and deviation, Europe and America, and so on, and they are preparing armies of different types to combat the spread of this corruption, and they barely manage to get rid of it. We do not have a text in the Qur'an that opium, by all its names, is forbidden, or for example, is the narcotic hashish lawful or forbidden? It is forbidden. From where? So you have received the answer, if Allah wills. Now, we have five minutes left, please proceed.