Tobacco fatwa

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A Tobacco fatwa is a fatwa (Islamic legal pronouncement) that prohibits the usage of tobacco by Muslims.

The smoking of tobacco became an issue in Islamic law as soon as the habit was introduced to Muslim populations. Scholars in the Ottoman empire, especially Ibrahim Efendi, hosted large public debates on whether smoking should be permitted or not. The Ottoman Sultan Murad IV ultimately forbad the smoking of tobacco and attempted to prevent it by shutting down coffee houses in Istanbul. During the Sultan’s military campaigns the soilders were forbidden to smoke under pain of death. Katib Chelebi writes that none of these measures managed to slow the spread of the habit. According to Muhammad al-Jibaly’s recent writings on the issue, European countries were able to effectively control smoking once its ill effects became clear while the use of tobacco reached high levels in Muslim countries.

In order to deal with the use of tobacco, there have been several notable occasions of issuing such a tobacco ban.

A fatwa by Mirza Shirazi in 1891 during the Tobacco Protest in Iran. It was instrumental in revoking the tobacco concession given to a British company by the Shah.
A fatwa by Sheikh Nasr Farid Wassel[1], then Grand Mufti of Egypt, in September 2000, which started the national anti-smoking campaign.

The fatwa issued against smoking of tobacco contain similar arguments. Islamic law prevents Muslims from contributing to their own harm. Many argue that smoking violates this because of the negative health effects, such as lung cancer, that it causes. Similarly, second hand smoke can hurt those around the smoker, meaning that a Muslim is endangering his family as well. Scholars also argue that smoking is, like gambling, a useless waste of money. Creditable hadiths report that Muhammad said that being wasteful in spending will anger Allah. All these arguments indicate to many that smoking of tobacco, and other substances as well, is prohibited to Muslims.

-Katib Chelebi, The Balance of Truth Chapter 5 -Muhammad al-Jibaly (1996) Smoking: A Social Poison. http://islam.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://qss.org/articles/smoking.html -Smoking in Islam. http://islam.about.com/library/weekly/aa090600a.htm