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Resolutions of Iftaa' Board


Resolutions of Iftaa' Board

Resolution No.(109): "Ruling on Smoking and Selling Cigarettes

Date Added : 28-12-2015

Resolution No.(109): "Ruling on Smoking and Selling Cigarettes"

On 3/5/1427 AH, corresponding to 30/5/2006 AD

 

We received the following question: 

What is the position of religion on selling cigarettes, hobble bubble (water pipe), all kinds of tobacco and renting out stores for this purpose?

Answer: All of success is due to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds

 

The Board of Iftaa’ sees that tobacco and all its kinds were not known in the time of the prophet and his companions - may Allah Be Pleased with them - nor in the time of the scholars of the main doctrines. Tobacco came to be known in the eleventh Hijri/Islamic century, and as there is no religious text that forbids it, and as it does not intoxicate, the scholars have disagreed over the religious stand on smoking whether it is forbidden, disliked, or allowed in accordance to their understanding of what harm it may cause the smoker.

 

  Studies have proved much harm caused by smoking to health, environment, society and economy. Cigarettes contain poisonous nicotine, and the ratio of smokers who suffer from cancer is very high. Its harm extends to the nonsmokers who happen to be present in places where people smoke as they actually inhale the smoke with air, it penetrates their bodies, and they get affected directly by its hateful smell. In addition it is very harmful economically and is considered as extravagance and reckless spending, because Allah The Almighty Says (What means): “And waste not by extravagance. Verily, He likes not those who waste by extravagance.” [Al-An'aam/141]. In addition, Allah The Almighty Says (What means): “Verily the spendthrifts are brothers of the devils” [Al-Israa'/27]. In Jordan, as sources reveal, the yearly waste expenditures that result from smoking exceed one billion and five million Jordanian dinars.

 

   Consequently, the Iftaa’ Board thinks that smoking is a general calamity. Thus, the Board sees that smoking is forbidden to whoever is ascertain that it causes serious damage, or whose cure is delayed because of this bad habit. In this regard, Allah, The Most Exalted, Said (What means): “And do not kill (or destroy) yourselves (nor kill one another). Surely, Allah is Most Merciful to you!” [Al-Israa'/29]. Smoking becomes surely forbidden for the one who spends all his money on cigarettes and deprives himself and his family of life necessities such as food, drinks, clothes, house rent, medicine or education. The prophet (PBUH) says: “It is enough sin for a person to thwart those whom he supports.” (1)

 

  Smoking becomes also forbidden in public places such as mosques, hospitals, busses, cars, schools and other places where nonsmokers exist. It becomes forbidden in these places because it is forbidden for a Muslim to hurt others, as the prophet (PBUH) says: “Don’t cause any harm to yourself nor hurt others.” (2) He also said: “A Muslim is the one who other Muslims are safe from his tongue and hand,” i.e. who does not hurt others with his tongue nor with his hand. (3) Consequently, and because of the disastrous harms caused by smoking to health, environment, and economy, the Iftaa’ Board sees that resisting smoking with all possible means is obligatory and that publicizing it or encouraging others to smoke must be prohibited.

 

  For all of the above, the Board of Iftaa’ recommends people neither to sell cigarettes, tobacco nor hobble bobble in their stores nor to rent out places to be used for these purposes. And Allah Knows Best.

 

Iftaa’ Board

Head of the Iftaa’ Board

The Supreme Judge/ Dr. Ahmad Muhammad Helayel

                                Shaikh Abdel Kareem al-Khasawneh            

Dr. Yusuf Ali Ghayithan

                                Dr. Abdel Majeed el-Salaheen                     

                 Dr. Wasef Abdel Wahaab el-Bakri

                                  Sheikh Na’eem Muhammad Mujahed           

                       Sheikh Said Abdel Hafeeth al-Hajjawi

 

 

 

(1) Narrated by Al Nisaa’iy in Al-Sunan Al-Kubra (The Great Reports of the Prophet, (vol.5/pp.374) from Abdullah Bin Amro. It is also in Muslim no.(996) but in different words: "It is enough sin for a believer to prevent his support from those whom he owns."

(2) Narrated by Ibn Majeh in Sunan, Book of Rules, under the title He Who Builds on His Place What Hurts His Neighbor, Hadeeth/saying no.(2340). Al-Nawawy said in Al-Athkaar "it is graded as sound/Saheeh narration" (pp.502).

(3) Narrated by Al-Bukhari, Book of Faith, under the title the Muslim is he who other Muslims are safe from his tongue and hand, hadeeth/saying no.(10). Also narrated by Muslim in Book of Faith under the title Which Status is Better in Islam, hadeeth/saying no.(40).

(4) This advice is by what is mentioned above about smoking being forbidden.

 

Decision Number [ Next ]


Summarized Fatawaa

Is it permissible for household members to pool money for the Udhiyah and gift it to one of them?

Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon our master, the Messenger of Allah.
 
It is permissible for members of a household to pool their money together and gift the total amount to one individual among them so that he may offer the sacrifice (Udhiyah). In this case, the family members receive the reward for giving charity (Sadaqah), and the one performing the sacrifice includes them in the spiritual reward (Thawab).
 
Furthermore, slaughtering a single sheep (on one's own) is considered religously better than participating as one of seven people in the sacrifice of a cow or a camel. And Allah the Almighty knows best.

A woman made a wig for herself from her own [previously shed] hair, which she wears on her head after having lost her hair [due to hair loss]. Is this permissible?

All praise is due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon our master, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
Since the hair belongs to the woman herself, the wig can be removed during the obligatory ghusl (ritual bathing), and part of the head can still be wiped during wuḍū' (ablution), there is no sharī‘ah objection to making this wig — provided she does not appear wearing it in front of non-maḥram men (Any males outside a woman's immediate family whom she is permitted to marry under Islamic law), since it is not permissible for them to look at a woman's detached hair.
It is stated in Rawḍat aṭ-Ṭālibīn wa ‘Umdat al-Muftīn: "Whatever it is not permissible to look at while still attached [to the body] — such as the male genitalia, a free woman's forearm, the hair of her head, and a man's pubic hair, and similar matters — it remains unlawful to look at even after it has been detached [from the body], according to the more correct position (al-aṣaḥḥ)." And Allah, the Exalted, knows best.

What is the ruling on combining more than one intention in the prayer, such as combining the *sunnah* of wuḍūʾ with the pre-Dhuhr *sunnah*, or combining the *sunnah* of greeting the mosque (*taḥiyyat al-masjid*) with the pre-Dhuhr *sunnah*?

All praise is due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon our master, the Messenger of Allah.
Combining two intentions in a single act of worship, which some jurists call the “overlapping of acts of worship”, has several cases and precise rules. These can be consulted in the books of legal maxims, such as al-Manthūr fī al-Qawāʿid al-Fiqhiyyah by al-Zarkashī and al-Ashbāh wa’l-Naẓāʾir by al-Suyūṭī. Among the most important of these rules:
First: If all of the acts of worship that one wishes to combine under one intention are obligatory, the intentions do not overlap. An example is combining the intention of the obligatory ʿAṣr prayer with that of the obligatory Dhuhr prayer. The intentions do not overlap in this case.
Second: If the two acts are specified supererogatory prayers (nawāfil muqayyadah) that are aimed at in themselves because of a particular time, occasion, or cause, or if they are an obligatory prayer and a specified supererogatory prayer, the intentions again do not overlap. An example is the Duha prayer, which may not be combined with, for instance, the regular sunnah of Dhuhr.
It is stated in Bushrā al-Karīm: “Whatever is not, in meaning, an absolute voluntary prayer, such as the Duha sunnah… is not subsumed under another. Rather, if he intends something else along with it… the prayer is not validly entered. This is because combining two obligations, two specified supererogatory prayers, or an obligation and a specified supererogatory prayer invalidates the prayer in cases not built upon overlapping, as ritual purification (ṭahārah) is.”
Third: If the two acts are absolute voluntary prayers (nawāfil muṭlaqah), or one of them is, where the texts of the Sharīʿah show that the aim of the voluntary act is to fill the time with worship, then overlapping of intentions is permissible. An example is the obligatory Dhuhr prayer together with the sunnah of greeting the mosque (taḥiyyat al-masjid). And Allah Almighty knows best.

Is the Saying "Whatever is Taken by the Sword of Shyness is Forbidden" an Authentic Ḥadīth?

All praise is due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon our master the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
The saying "Whatever is taken by the sword of shyness is forbidden" is not an authentic ḥadīth, though its underlying meaning is sound. The established sharʿī principle is that a Muslim's wealth is not lawful for anyone to take except with his wholehearted consent, as Allah the Almighty says {what means}: "O you who have believed, do not consume one another's wealth unjustly, but only [in lawful] business by mutual consent." [Al-Nisā/ 29] And the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Listen to me and you will live well: do not wrong others, do not wrong others, do not wrong others. Indeed, a man's wealth is not lawful except with his full, willing consent." (Reported by Aḥmad in his Musnad.) Whatever is taken through the pressure of shyness or social embarrassment runs directly counter to genuine, wholehearted consent.
The jurists have explicitly stated that whatever is taken by means of the "sword of shyness" carries the same ruling as that which is taken by coercion — it must be returned to its rightful owner.
Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī, may Allah have mercy upon him, states in al-Fatāwā al-Kubrā (Vol.3/P.30): "Do you not see the reported scholarly consensus that whoever has something taken from him purely out of shyness, without his genuine consent, does not pass ownership of it to the one who took it? They reasoned that this constitutes a form of coercion through the 'sword of shyness,' comparable to coercion at the point of an actual sword. Indeed, many people would rather submit to the literal sword and endure the pain of its wound than submit to this first kind of coercion, out of fear for their dignity and standing — which people of sound judgment hold dear and guard most fiercely." And Allah the Almighty knows best.

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