What is the ruling on smoking, given that it has become one of the ugly habits prevalent in our lands?

The questioner : May Allah bless you. You know that what is called smoke or cigarettes has become an established habit in our societies these days. It is not merely a habit; perhaps one might look at it with differing perspectives from place to place, but it has become so dominant that it has almost become part of the life of the Ummah. Enormous, uncountable sums of money are spent on this habit, and it inflicts severe harm on bodies, wealth, and souls. Perhaps one finds among these smokers someone who saves or cuts from the food of his family and children to buy this pack of cigarettes to smoke. The important thing is that you see what we see in this habit and its dominance and excess. It is not difficult, in my view, for people to quit this habit except by knowing the ruling of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) regarding it. So whoever Allah guides will act upon this ruling, and whoever is on a different path, we ask Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) to guide him after his brothers or peers among the smokers have been guided. So we hope that our Shaykh (may Allah reward him with good) will clarify for us, with some detail and explanation, the ruling of Allah regarding this dominant, excessive habit. May Allah reward you with good?

Another questioner : May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : And blessings and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah. As for what follows: He (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the authentic hadith that Imam Muslim narrated in his Sahih from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: . Imam Muslim narrated in his Sahih from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: . And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in another hadith: ; therefore, among the virtues of the Islamic Shari'ah is that it gathered all the indications regarding what benefits the Ummah in this world and the Hereafter. However, these indications differ in terms of the strength of their indication, their clarity and apparentness, and their obscurity and non-apparentness except to the people of knowledge, or even to a group of the people of knowledge, as the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) indicated in the authentic hadith that the two Shaykhs narrated in their Sahihs from the hadith of Mu'awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him). He said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . And "fiqh in the religion" is not what is known among the later scholars, where a student of knowledge reads a book or more of the concise fiqh books composed according to one of the followed schools of jurisprudence, even if they are from the schools of the people of the Sunnah. This is not the fiqh that our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) meant in the last hadith: . Rather, fiqh is this: the deep understanding and comprehension of the Book of Allah and the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). This is because Islam, in its two pure sources—the Book of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and the clear Sunnah of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him)—is the only thing that gathered all the indications we mentioned earlier regarding the interests of Muslims in their worldly and hereafter affairs. Let us give you an example, which is from the common and widespread afflictions in the whole world, and its contagion has spread to many Islamic countries, similar to the spread of the contagion of smoking, to which the question was directed earlier, namely hashish, the narcotic. If a Muslim from the general Muslims wanted to ask about the ruling on consuming this narcotic in Islam, what is it? And if the one asked is a deep scholar or a jurist—and here it is necessary to distinguish between the deep scholar (mutafaqqih) and the jurist (faqih). The deep scholar is the one who read a book from those concise books where the forbidden things are listed, for example, and enumerated without explaining their source from the Book and the Sunnah. As for the jurist, he is the one who refers you back to the two pure sources to deduce from them, or from one of them, the answer to any question. And what is being discussed now is hashish, the narcotic. If he is a deep scholar, he will say what he attributes to his shaykhs that it is forbidden. But if he is asked what is the evidence, is there evidence in the Book of Allah or in the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) that indicates the prohibition of this hashish or any narcotic from the many narcotics that have many names but are united in harm? The answer is that we return to the two hadiths with which we began this speech earlier. The first hadith: . And the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) spoke about himself after speaking about his brothers who preceded him in prophethood or messengership, and he said about himself: . So the Messenger (peace be upon him) prohibited, with a general prohibition, everything—and here is the point now—this point by which we deduce the prohibition of many innovations and many afflictions that have appeared with many and very many names in the present age, which were not known in the previous old ages, among them smoking, before that hashish, the narcotic, but its types were not known as they are known today, especially in the world of disbelief and misguidance in Europe and America. So the answer regarding the prohibition of these narcotic things like hashish, and we attach to it smoking by the commonality of what you will hear shortly, if Allah wills, from his (peace and blessings be upon him) saying: . This hadith is considered one of the concise words of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and the summary of his phrases that gathered many and very many meanings, where he said: . What is the meaning of "no harm and no reciprocating harm"? Harm is what you inflict upon yourself, and reciprocating harm is what you extend this harm to others. This hadith establishes a general rule for Muslims: that it is not permissible for you, O Muslim, to consume, first, something that harms yourself, and whether this harm affects your body or your soul or your wealth, and then it is not permissible for this harm to extend to others .