What is the ruling on smoking cigarettes and shisha?

Question:
What is the ruling on smoking cigarettes and shisha? And how does one give it up if he is unable to do so?

Answer:
Smoking cigarettes in all its forms is a reprehensible act, and it entails great harms. Giving it up requires determination and strength from the man; weakness and softness are of no use. One must have strength and sincerity with Allah, and if he is sincere, Allah will help him. We know many people who have given it up; they used to smoke and then quit. They were sincere and quit, and it did not harm them. It took two, three, or four days, and then it was over.
One must be sincere and must engage in the means that occupy him and distract him from it. Among these means is not sitting with those who smoke. If he sits with them, they will drag him into it. But being sincere means not sitting with them, staying away from them, striving to watch Allah in not returning to it, and engaging in the means that stand between him and it in every way. So be glad of good, just as the wine seller, if he becomes accustomed to it, finds it difficult to give it up.
Therefore, it is obligatory for a person to have strength, chivalry, and manliness that call him to patience and earnestness in giving up what harms him and what Allah has forbidden him, and not to follow the idle self, the desires, or Satan and his agents. We ask Allah for safety.