Haraam

Hookah / Sheesha Smoking: Safer than Cigarettes? Haram or Halal?

As if our youth didn't have enough distractions and bad habits readily available to pick up, we now have the hookah fad. Step aside cigarette smoking, there's something cooler in town (for our youth to destroy their bodies with)! Different flavors, different settings, a "Muslim export"… how cool is that?
Actually not cool at all. :/ And what's worse is that some Muslims are actually promoting this lifestyle.

First the ground rules: Most scholars now agree that cigarette smoking is haram, i.e. prohibited for Muslims due to its harmful effects on the human body, which directly go against an injunction in the Qur'an. "And do not kill yourselves. Surely, Allah is Most Merciful to you. And whoever commits that through aggression and injustice, We shall cast him into the Fire and that is easy for Allah" [Qur'an 4:29] "And do not throw yourselves into destruction." [Qur'an 2:195]

So, this post is not going to detail issues about cigarette smoking, because not only is cigarette smoking far less socially acceptable, but many Muslims recognize that it is haram (forbidden), even if some are stuck at the makruh (disliked) mistake. Initially, when the harmful effects of smoking were not proven scientifically, scholars hesitated on giving the haram ruling, and instead considered it makruh. However, one would have to be sitting in a cave in Timbuktu not to now KNOW and RECOGNIZE the direct link that exists between cigarette smoking and extremely harmful effects to the body, including lung cancer.

Muslim scholars in the past differed in opinion regarding smoking because of lack of evidence relating cigarette smoking to disease. Those who considered Makruh, regarded this lack of evidence. But since 30 years ago the evidence clearly demonstrates that smoking is injurious to health. The majority of Ahl Sunnah wal-Jama'ah scholars and Jumhur (majority) have clearly stated that smoking is Haram.

Muhammad Afifi also provides a collection of statements of scholars from a wide spectrum of methodologies and madahibs. In this online booklet, Muhammad Al-Jibaly describes many of the reasons for its forbidden status.