Is smoking forbidden in Islam?

No, because neither the Holy Qur’an nor the Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) declares it forbidden. But smoking is harmful and wasteful, and everyone should avoid it.

In Islam, God alone decides what is forbidden. This is laid down in the Holy Qur’an and in the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw). No one may add anything to it or take anything away. Smoking was unknown at the time of revelation, and nowhere is it named as forbidden.

Harmful and forbidden are two different things. Many poisons damage health, yet not every poison is forbidden in the religious sense. What God has forbidden, a Muslim avoids even if he does not fully understand the reason. What is harmful, he avoids because reason tells him to.

Smoking is harmful. It can cause lung cancer and many other diseases. It costs money and energy, and it pollutes the air so that others suffer too. So people should be advised against it, and it should be avoided. The second verse above forbids casting yourself into ruin with your own hands, and the third censures the wasteful.

But whoever declares smoking forbidden in the name of God does something worse than smoking itself. He attributes to God a commandment that God never gave, and the first verse above warns against exactly that. Even a good intention does not justify it. Truth can only be served with truth.