Tobacco, shisha and drugs

Tobacco reached the Muslim world in the 16th century, after revelation: its qualification was made through the general rules of harm and waste, up to the named views of contemporary scholars. Drugs, for their part, fall under the explicit prohibition of intoxication.

Tobacco: the view of contemporary Sunni scholars

• Ibn Baz (fatwa published on his official site and in his collections): smoking is unlawful (haram), the shisha as much as the cigarette, because of the established harm it causes to body and wealth;
• the Standing Committee for Research and Fatwas (Fatawa al-Lajna ad-Da'ima): growing, trading and consuming tobacco are unlawful, by the verse: "do not cast yourselves into destruction" (sura al-Baqara 195) and "do not kill yourselves" (sura an-Nisa 29);
• the history of the qualification: earlier scholars hesitated between disliked and unlawful according to the knowledge of their time; modern medical data (cancers, cardiovascular diseases) settled the empirical debate and the fatwa followed; whoever holds tobacco to be merely disliked has at the very least avoided it;
• shisha and the electronic cigarette: same qualification as tobacco; the unknown substances of vaping fall under avoided doubt (al-Bukhari 2051);
• the scriptural foundation: "they ask you what is lawful: declare lawful to them the good things and forbid them the bad ones" (sura al-A'raf 157).

Drugs: unanimous prohibition

Every intoxicant is wine, and every intoxicant is unlawful.

Muslim 2003

• The criterion: every substance that intoxicates (cannabis, opiates, cocaine, stimulants) falls under the prohibition of khamr: "every intoxicant is unlawful" (al-Bukhari 5143, 5575);
• trade: drug trafficking is cooperation in sin and hostility (sura al-Ma'ida 2);
• medical exceptions: prescribed morphine, controlled treatments: accepted by documented medical necessity, the rule of necessity lifting the prohibition to its measure.

The way of weaning off tobacco and drugs

The intention to break free, lawful means (medical support, authorised substitutes), a protective environment, and the return of health as a religious act: the body is an entrusted deposit (sura al-Baqara 195). Relapse does not cancel repentance: the effort resumes.

Practical note on tobacco and drugs

For the youth: prevention through frank speech and meaning (the entrusted body, money spent usefully). For the family of a dependent person: never mockery, always help oriented towards care.