We have been recently blessed with the ban of cigarette smoking in public areas (airports, hospitals, government buildings).

This is a relief for the luckier majority of us who are not smokers. Unfortunately, it does not last long and deliverance from second-hand smoke is short-lived.

To our dismay, some seem to accept and even bless a recently-revived fad, shisha, or argeela, a habit that was looked down upon a couple of decades ago.

In the recent years, parents and their young sons and daughters sit around the same restaurant table, hubble-bubbling side by side and blowing smoke at each other’s faces, deeming it a less harmful habit than cigarette smoking.

If so, then they are in for bad news!

According to Professor Bertrand Dautzenberg, a respiratory tract specialist, a 45-minute session of shisha corresponds to smoking 40 cigarettes.

With each inhalation, a shisha smoker takes in 2 whole litres of smoke, whereas a cigarette puff releases 0.5 litre. Moreover, shisha smokers are under the false impression that the water in the container filters noxious substances in tobacco.

Another bad effect of shisha: cooled-down smoke makes the smoker retain the inhaled smoke longer in the lungs than hot smoke. One more thing to take into account, around 10 grams of shisha tobacco leaves contain tar and nicotine that are equal to that of ten cigarettes. In addition to this, tobacco burned by charcoal produces more heavy metals (lead, nickel, etc...) than by cigarette smoke.

Another dangerous substance that is emitted by shisha smoke is carbon monoxide. Just to give you a quick idea; the residue of these toxic materials line the interior walls of the lungs, destroying their delicate alveoli and resulting in emphysema — respiratory failure, a painful ending to life.

Shisha’s multifaceted damage extends to the transmission of highly contagious and infectious diseases such as herpes, hepatitis, tuberculosis, and more through its mouthpiece, or nozzle, which circulates around the table from mouth to mouth.

Seemingly innocuous and enjoyable habits can lead to a plethora of health problems (heart and vascular diseases, cancer) that you can definitely do without.

Unfortunately the practice of shisha, argeela, or hookah in public places (restaurants, cafes, hotels) has spread from East to West and South to North, leaving behind heavy clouds of second-hand smoke and loads of harmful substances.

Adults and young people lounge smugly in cafe terraces and in restaurants, drawing in smoke from shisha nozzles and puffing out billows of smoke, oblivious of the damage they are inflicting on their lungs, heart, and health, let alone harming the innocent bystanders. They are also ready to defend the habit at any moment!

Remember, they are not only burning their health, but they are also destroying yours and mine by contaminating our air with the thick clouds of their second-hand smoke. Our silence only encourages the harmful practices of the few.

Instead, we need to express our firm displeasure in order to have health officials ban shisha and other ways of smoking in public areas.

Clean air is our Allah (S.W.T)-given right. We should protect it from any kind of pollutants and our health from damage.

I hope, by reading this humble column and medical studies and researches on smoking, officials take stronger measures against public shisha, cigarette, and cigar smoking in order to safeguard our health from such harmful emissions.
Ref: Arab News

Smoking In Islam

In Islam cleanliness and hygiene are emphasized to the extent that it has been considered a part of Iman (faith). It is very well known that a smoker's mouth is unclean and foul smelling "like a cigarette ash-tray." In the Quran, Allah (S.W.T) says: 

"And forbid them what is bad." - Surah Al-'Araf, 7:157 

"0 ye who believe! Intoxicants and gambling are an abomination of Satan's handiwork. Eschew such abominations that ye may prosper." -  Surah Al Ma'idah, 5:93 

The word intoxicant has three meanings (6):  

(1) To induce, especially the effect of ingested alcohol.

(2) To stimulate or excite.

(3) To poison.   

The latter two meanings are very valid and applicable to nicotine.

Smoking is nothing but a form of slow suicide. The Qur'an says: 

"And slay not the life which Allah (S.W.T) hath forbidden..." - Surah, Al-Isra, 17:33 

"And make not your own hands contribute to your destruction." - Surah, Al-Baqara, 2:195 

"Nor kill or destroy yourselves for verily Allah (S.W.T) hath been to you most Merciful." Surah, An-Nisa, 4:29

Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) has said: "Nor be hurt or injure others." It is scientifically proven that the exhaled smoke of the smoker is hazardous to non-smokers around him.

In the Quran Allah (S.W.T) says:  

"But squander not your wealth in the manner of a spend thrift, verily spendthrifts are brothers of evils." - Surah, Al-Isra, 17:26, 27

The body is polluted by smoking. Hence smokers cannot pray until they have cleansed themselves. According to the Qur'an:

"0 ye who believe! Draw not near unto prayer when you are drunken, till ye know that which ye utter, nor when you are polluted save when journeying upon the road, till you have bathed." - Surah, An-Nisa, 4:43

The Christians consider the human body to be a sacred trust given to man by Allah (S.W.T) because it contains the spirit breathed into it by Allah (S.W.T). Even the Qur'an says 

"So, when I have made him and have breathed unto him of My spirit, do ye fall down, prostrating yourselves unto him." - Surah, Al-Hijr, 15:29. 

Hence the physical body should not be polluted or injured or destroyed in any way by smoking or taking of alcohol or any type of habit-forming drugs.