Islamic views on tobacco

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The Islamic views on tobacco vary by region. Though tobacco or smoking in general is not explicitly mentioned in the Quran or hadith, contemporary scholars have condemned it as completely harmful, and have at times prohibited smoking outright (declared it haram) as a result of the severe health damage that it causes. A tobacco fatwa is a fatwa (Islamic legal pronouncement) that prohibits the usage of tobacco by Muslims. Arab Muslims tend to prohibit smoking (despite Saudi Arabia ranking 23rd in the world for the percentage of its population that smokes) and, in South Asia, smoking tends to be considered lawful but discouraged. For many Muslims, the legal status of smoking has changed during recent years, and numerous fatwas, including from notable authorities such as Al Azhar University in Cairo, now consider smoking haram (prohibited). The reasons cited in support of the reclassification of smoking as prohibited include Islamic law's general prohibition of all actions that result in harm. For example, the Quran says, "And spend of your substance in the cause of God, and make not your own hands contribute to your own destruction." Additionally, jurists rely on the exhortations in the Quran not to waste money. Greater appreciation of the risks associated with secondhand smoke has also led recent jurists to cite the obligation to avoid causing willful annoyance, distress, or harm to other people.

The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Muhammad ibn Ibrahim Aal Al Sheikh, has ruled that "smoking is impermissible on the basis of authentic quotations, sound judgments, and the opinions of reputable physicians." The Mufti cites a sahih hadith (verifiable saying of the Prophet) saying "do not harm yourself or others." He further referenced a Quranic verse saying that the Prophet "forbids that which is unwholesome."

In addition to issuing a fatwa against smoking, the United Arab Emirates instructed imams in all mosques to read a sermon against smoking on June 11, 1999, following Friday prayers.

From the 1970s to the late 1990s, tobacco companies including British American Tobacco and Phillip Morris were involved in campaigns to undermine fatwas against smoking in Muslim majority countries by branding any Muslim who opposed smoking as a fundamentalist' who wished to return to sharia law", and to be "a threat to existing government". Several firms in the tobacco industry were also concerned about the World Health Organization's encouraging an anti smoking stance by Muslim scholars. A 1985 report from tobacco firm Philip Morris squarely blamed the WHO: "This ideological development has become a threat to our business because of the interference of the WHO The WHO has not only joined forces with Muslim fundamentalists who view smoking as evil, but has gone yet further by encouraging religious leaders previously not active anti smokers to take up the cause."