First published in the Queensland Muslim Times May Edition
Late last night I was walking outside a supermarket and was approached by a brother who greeted me with the salaam and immediately proceeded to ask me a favour. He wanted me to buy for him, 10 cartons of cigarettes. He had already bought 10, and that must have been the limit. Presumably this brother runs a tobacco shop and the cigarettes must have been going cheap at the supermarket.
I refused. I then tried to politely explain why. Unfortunately this was not well received. I do know that some Imams from the Indo-Pak subcontinent have the opinion that smoking is makruh, but the Ulama I studied from in Syria and Jordan state that smoking is haram – no less. Since this is the opinion I follow, it would be haram for me to buy the cigarettes.
The brother proceeded to question my own line of work.
Amongst fridges, freezers, washing machines and deep fryers, we sell televisions. Not only televisions in fact, but dvd players and hi-fi systems as well. All of these evil instruments of sin. Or are they? The brother questioned how I could make such a statement on smoking yet be happy enough to continue to sell televisions.
This made me think. Did he have a point? One can always learn something and furthermore it can always happen at a time you least expect, like late at night in front of a supermarket. I looked at all the possible uses for a cigarette and all involve smoking it one way or the other. I don’t think it could be used for anything beneficial at all.
Then I looked at the TV. Yes one could watch pornographic movies on it (this was his argument), but on the same token you could also watch the news. Or motor racing. Or then again you could watch the Tarawih from Makkah.
Clearly this is chalk and cheese. You could not possibly compare the two. The use of one is inherently harmful (ie. smoking harms the health) and anyone who seriously doubts this lives in blissful ignorance, whilst the other can either be harmful or not, depending on what the user chooses to do with it.
I know some of the most pious people in Brisbane who own televisions. My late tajweed teacher Muhammad Nabih Aziz (may Allah have mercy on him ) once asked me for a TV and I am sure he took it back to Egypt with him (he did ask me if he could keep it first, of course!).
Saying that TV's are haram is analogous to saying that cars are haram, because one day you might just hop in your car and pick up a prostitute. It all depends on what you do with it.
To the brother, if you are reading this, I am sorry if my refusal upset you, but please respect the opinion that I follow, and furthermore please respect the fact that a difference of opinion exists on this issue between ones more learned than either you or I.
As a final thought, even if I was of the more relaxed belief that smoking was “only” makruh, how could one get upset at another because he didn’t want to perform a makruh action? Avoiding makruh is a praiseworthy action…
http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?HD=1&ID=677&CATE=115
And Allah knows best
Abdul-Khalik Kassim
