Egypt attempts crackdown on Water Pipe

In a country where smoking is cheap and often described as a "national habit", an Egyptian government crackdown on shisha, the popular flavoured tobacco-filled water pipe, is facing stiff resistance.

Egyptian authorities have issued an ultimatum to the owners of cafes in several cities across the country to stop offering shisha or face hefty fines.

The crackdown comes as the government tries to enforce a two-year-old law banning smoking in public places.

But as Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh reports, many say a total ban on shisha would have a damaging effect on Egypt's vital tourism industry.

Muslim, Smoking and Fasting

Shah Zareen, 45, has been smoking for most of his adult life.

But he is determined to emerge victorious from his painstaking battle against smoking during the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

"I will begin my mission from this Ramadan," Zareen, a juice shop owner, told IslamOnline.net.

During Ramadan, adult Muslims, save the sick and those traveling, abstain from food, drink, smoking and sex between dawn and sunset.

Zareen, who smokes from 25 to 30 cigarettes a day, has already chalked out his plan to quit smoking during Ramadan with the help of his eight-year-old daughter Rozina.

"Of course, there will be no smoking during the fasting time. But after that whenever I have an urge, my daughter will give me a glass of water, which will help me maintain my will-power," he said.

"I don’t want to ruin my health any more."

Smoking is embedded in the culture of Pakistan, where tobacco consumption is on the rise despite government and NGOs efforts.

According to a survey by the Health Ministry's tobacco control department, some 40 percent of men and 8 percent of women in Pakistan are addicted to smoking.

A majority of them are chain smokers.

According to World Health Organization (WHO), over one million people die every year in Pakistan as a result of the use of tobacco in various forms.

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Smoking did not exist during the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), but our great religion of Islam has laid down general principles from which many laws are derived. From these principles, Muslim scholars have come to the conclusion that smoking is prohibited. A Muslim who smokes is ignorant of his religion and follows his lusts.

"One of the principles of Islamic jurisprudence is that all that is harmful and filthy is considered haram (forbidden).

There is enough scientific evidence to prove that smoking is harmful to one's health. Islam teaches us to take care of our health and not to destroy it. By smoking we are causing our own destruction, and Allah’s order in the Qur’an is clear: “Do not cause your own destruction” (Al-Baqarah: 195); “Do not kill yourself, for verily God is ever Merciful towards you” (An-Nisaa': 29).

Allah has prohibited us from squandering our wealth, and there is no doubt that smoking is sheer wastage of valuable resources. The money thus squandered on tobacco could very well rid the world of poverty — if correctly utilized.

As for the question why many Muslims still smoke, I cannot find any reason other than their sheer ignorance of Islamic teachings or their being carried away by their lusts.

One of the purposes of the institution of fasting in Islam is to help us break our bad habits and learn positive and life enhancing habits and thus equip us to face the challenges of life.

If, therefore, you fast and turn to Allah for assistance, you can overcome your smoking habit. Many people have overcome such bad habits through fasting. So many of them have quit smoking cold turkey during the month of Ramadan after being addicted to it for ten to twenty years or even more; they have never turned back.

You can also do the same, but before doing that you must summon enough courage and inner strength by talking to yourself about the negative aspects of smoking. No one can quit any bad habit if he still continues to glamorize it deep in his heart. It seems you are conditioned to thinking that smoking is great. So take yourself out of this habit by consciously visualizing all of the negative things about smoking you can think of as well as picturing all the pain, suffering (cancer, etc.) that it entails. Also, think of the valuable resources you are squandering which could have been used to feed many who are deprived of even the most basic necessities of life.

After having convinced yourself and created enough self motivation, turn to Allah and concentrate on dhikr (remembrance of Allah). Thus every time you are prompted to light a cigarette, cancel that thought by repeating subhan-allah (Glory be to Allah), al-hamduli-llahi (Praise be to Allah), Allahu akbar (Allah is most Great). Plead to Allah to grant you enough strength to master this monster. He will surely help you. Imagine that what you are praying for is already given to you. If you are sincere, you will be rewarded in your efforts. Islam is hard, and yet it is easy for those for whom Allah has made it easy. You can expect Allah to help you if only you turn sincerely to Him and surrender yourself to Him.

Women should not drink at all

Women who drink a glass of wine a day are more likely to develop a range of cancers than are teetotallers, according to the largest study ever conducted into drinking and cancer.

A daily drink was found to significantly raise the risk of breast, liver and rectal cancer, and is estimated to account for more than 7,000 extra cases of cancer each year in the UK.

Researchers at the University of Oxford said the findings, which are part of the Million Women Study, make clear that even light, regular drinking can be a serious threat to health.

While alcohol seemed to reduce the risk of some very rare cancers, such as kidney, non-Hodgkin lymphoma and thyroid tumours, it raised the risk of others. For every 1,000 women, drinking regularly once a day was linked to 11 extra breast cancers, one more oral cancer and one additional case of rectal cancer each year. Cases of oesophageal, laryngeal and liver cancer all rose by 0.7 extra cases per 1,000 women up to the age of 75. The increase in cancer risk was the same whether women drank wine, beer, spirits or a mixture.

Smoking is still by far the largest single cause of cancer, accounting for around one third of all diagnosed cases. Diet and diet-related factors, such as obesity, are thought to explain a further third, with alcohol accounting for around 5% of cancers.

The recent revelation that even one small glass of wine a day increases the risk of breast cancer was greeted with scorn by many women. But it came from the biggest survey ever conducted into the health and habits of Britain's females, and its findings cannot easily be dismissed.

It is the Million Women Study, run by some very senior scientists at Oxford University. In research, size really does matter - and this is the biggest project of its kind on the planet.

Well over a million women - 1.3 million to be accurate - were recruited across the UK, some as far back as 1996 and the last in 2001. Most were in their 50s, invited with the help of the NHS breast-screening service the first time they went for a mammogram. The information they have shared about their lifestyle, history, health and habits, together with the data that is being gathered over the years about the diseases they get, is a goldmine for researchers.

Once you stop drinking, your increased cancer risk starts to melt away. It's the same with HRT. And even with smoking. "If you give up smoking, within five years your risk of lung cancer has halved," Beral says. "It's about what you are now. You can change it. The only exposure that I'm sure does persist is radiation. It mutates the DNA directly. But most of what we see seems to be reversible."

And to finally finish off with some more interesting news, Just a few sessions of heavy drinking can damage someone's ability to pay attention, remember things and make good judgments, research shows.

Binge drinkers are known to be at increased risk of accidents, violence and engaging in unprotected sex. But the study is the first to identify brain damage as a danger of consuming more alcohol than official safe limits.

The research, to be published in the journal Alcohol and Alcoholism, is significant because binge drinking is so widespread in the UK. Twenty-three per cent of men and 15% of women drink more than twice the government's recommended daily limit. For men this means consuming more than eight units a day and for women more than six, according to the Office for National Statistics.

I hope we all know that Islam forbids drinking and smoking. Please see this for further details.

There are so many problems but all we are concerned with is Smoking Ban

A fatwa by Indonesia's top Islamic body banning smoking in public places is dividing the world's most populous Muslim state amid a conflict of interests between health and business.

"We will submit the fatwa to the Supreme Court as a basis of upgrading it to become apart of additive essence," Aries Merdeka Sirait, secretary general the National Human Rights for Children Protection, told IslamOnline.net on Saturday, January 31.

He said if the court considered tobacco an additive essence, then smoking will be banned in the Muslim country.

"So, the fatwa would be in effect not only for children and pregnant women," said Aries.

Nearly 700 scholars of the Ulemas Council on Sunday, January 25, banned smoking in public places and for children and pregnant women.

The scholars, however, failed to agree an outright ban on smoking, fearing it could harm the country's economy.

The fatwa is not legally binding for Muslims, who make up some 86.1 percent of Indonesia's 235 million population, but can influence government policy.

"I am happy and glad about the fatwa," Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said.

When asked about the impact of the fatwa on the country's tobacco industry, Supari said the issue is beyond her authority.

"That is not the concern of the health minister, but rather the trade and industry minister."

Indonesia is the world's third biggest cigarette consumers after China and India.

At around $1 a pack, cigarettes in Indonesia are among the cheapest in the world.

More than 60 million Indonesians are active-smokers.

Smoking is Haram regardless of what some people say or try and justify it. I have earlier posted articles about Egyptian Mufti declaring it Haram.

There are many instances where the Qur'an gives us general guidelines, and calls upon us to use our reason and intelligence, and seek guidance from Allah about what is right and wrong. In the Qur'an, Allah says, ...he [the Prophet] commands them what is just, and forbids them what is evil; he allows them as lawful what is good, and prohibits them from what is bad..." (Surah al-Araf 7:157).

Allah says, "...make not your own hands contribute to your destruction..." (Surah al-Baqarah 2:195); "...nor kill yourselves..." (Surah al-Nisaa 4:29). It is universally understood that cigarette smoking causes a
number of health problems that often ultimately result in death. Men who smoke contract lung cancer at 22 times the rate of non-smokers. Smokers are also highly at risk for heart disease, emphysema, oral cancer, stroke, etc. There are hundreds of poisonous and toxic ingredients in the cigarette itself that the smoker inhales straight into the lungs. In an authentic hadith, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said that "Whomsoever drinks poison, thereby killing himself, will sip this poison forever and ever in the fire of Jahannum (Hell)." Over 3 million people worldwide die from smoking-related causes each year.

In the Qur'an, Allah says: "Those who annoy believing men and women undeservedly bear on themselves a glaring sin" (Surat al-Ahzaab 33:58). And the Prophet (peace be upon him) said that "there should be neither harming, nor reciprocating harm. In another hadith, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "Anyone who believes in Allah and the Last Day should not hurt his neighbor." Those around the smoker inhale what is known as "second-hand smoke" - the unfiltered, poisonous waste that goes in the air around the smoker. There are over 4,000 chemicals in cigarette smoke, over 40 of which are known to cause cancer. Second-hand smoke causes or aggravates asthma, bronchitis, and other respiratory problems, especially in children.

Allah says, "...But spend not wastefully (your wealth) in the manner of a spendthrift. Verily spendthrifts are brothers of the devils... {Surah al-Israa 17:26-27} And in an authentic hadith the Prophet (peace be upon him) said that: "Allah hates for you three things: gossiping, begging, and wasting money." In the U.S. and other countries, cigarettes are taxed heavily in order to discourage this habit and reimburse the government for the overwhelming health care costs to care for those afflicted with diseases caused by smoking. Smokers often spend thousands of dollars a year that literally just go up in smoke.

More info can be obtained here.