Islamset - Islamic Ruling on Smoking

Health

Islamic

Perspective

Islamic Ruling on Smoking

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the MercifuI

Foreword

Hussain A. Gezairy, MD, FRCS
Regional Director for the
Eastern Mediterranean Region of
the World Health Organization

This year, the WHO reached its fortieth year; long may it continue.
This kind of occasion calls for a moment of reflection to review what has been achieved. WHO is proud of the successes it has achieved through its many complementary programmes and is making steady progress towards the attainment of the common goal of health for all.

WHO is particularly proud of the emerging common action, in which everyone is involved, in favour of promotion and protection of health. Health is indisputably the responsibility of both individuals and of society. Individuals, regardless of position or occupation have a fundamental role to play in health. Health is not the sole preserve of physicians or health authorities; everyone must participate in attaining health for all, in fulfillment of the Quranic injunction

Cooperate with each other for righteousness and piety, not for wrongdoing and enmity. Housewives, farmers, factory workers, teachers, soldiers, indeed everyone, young or old, can work for health or against it. Moreover, the role of individuals does not stop at the protection of their own health through healthy behavior, such as maintaining cleanliness, observing a sensible diet and taking regular exercise, but extends to avoidance of those things that are harmful to health, both one's own health and that of others.

It is universally accepted that the exercise of one's human rights should not infringe on the rights of others. Anyone who unjustly kills another threatens the rights of everyone because, as the Quran states, it is the same as killing everyone. The same is true for those who pollute the water supply, damage the environment or neglect to immunize their children, since these contribute to spreading and increasing disease and thereby threaten increasing disease and thereby threaten everyone's right to a healthy life.

Smoking is, perhaps, one of the most important threats to individual and community health. It is no secret that 2.5 million people die in the world each year from smoking-related diseases, including lung cancer, chronic bronchitis,
pulmonary emphysema, coronary heart disease and cancer of the bladder, smoking causes one death evenly 13 seconds. To date not a single benefit of smoking has been identified.
       Tobacco is unique among the substances in which people indulge in being completely harmful, to individuals, families and community. Even alcohol was acknowledged by God as having some benefits, when He said: When they ask I you (Muhammad) about wine and gambling, say: There is great offense and I some bent:fit in them both, but their offense is greater than their benefit. Nevertheless, He prohibited the drinking of alcohol completely because its harmful effects outweighed any benefits that might be derived from it. What, then, can be said of tobacco smoking, for which not a single benefit can be found and on whose harmful effects even smokers are unanimous.
       One of the worst Finns of smoking is that known as passive smoking and which refers to the involuntary inhalation by nonsmokers of other people's cigarette smoke, whether in the office, on public transport or in the home. Passive smoking is estimated to be responsible for 4000 to 5000 deaths every year in the United States of America, around 1000 in Britain and 500 in Canada, while women who are nonsmokers but whose husbands smoke are at much greater risk of contracting lung cancer than women married to nonsmokers.
      Religion has a strong influence in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. Many of the principles of Islam call upon people to look after their health, to avoid health hazards and risks and to raise their standards of hygiene. The Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office of the World Health Organization sought the opinions of a number of eminent Muslim scholars with regard to the Islamic ruling on smoking. We gratefully acknowledge the thorough and detailed replies received from these distinguished scholars. The general consensus concerning the Islamic ruling was that smoking is either completely prohibited or abhorrent to such a degree as to be prohibited.
      The Regional Office considered it incumbent upon it to make these findings available to the public. This booklet consists of a summary of the legal opinions of each of the scholars consulted, followed by the full text of their submissions. There is, inevitably, a certain amount of repetition in the material, especially with respect to the supporting health information cited by the scholars.
    We hope that smokers, having read these rulings, will respond for the sake of their personal health and that of their families, friends and fellow citizens by giving up smoking, in compliance with the words of God, Believers, respond to God and the Prophet when He calls yoㄅ to that which gives you life.

                                                            Muharram 1409 AH                                                                   August 1988