Question:
Assalmualiakum Eshaykh,
Does smoking invalidate prayers as well as supplication even though one prays and does Dzkir? Is it true that the body stays contaminated for 40 days and all request will go unanswered and angels will run away ? How does one take the contamination out if one quits smoking? Does he/she have to wait 40 days only then his/her prayers can be answered or one must do fasting etc ? And it is considered Haram to smoke because people smoke while even going to the mosque.
Many thanks
Answer:
wa `alaykum salam,
Firstly, the things that invalidate prayer include talking to someone else in any language, reciting or speaking with other than from the Qur’an or whichever Tasbih or Dhikr that is not included in the prayer, making meaningless audible sounds of at least 2 syllables, turning your body away from the direction of Qiblah, breaking or changing the intention of prayer, Riddah or renouncing Islam, making 3 or more movements without any purpose, laughing, excessive crying (i.e. howling or wailing), eating, drinking, vomiting, nullifying Wudu by excessive bleeding or getting into contact with Najasah (filth) or by getting into a state of Hadath (impurity) due to anything that comes out from the urethral opening, vagina and anus. Essentially, these are acts other than what should be done in prayer, including smoking. So the answer to this part of the question is, of course, smoking while praying would invalidate the prayer, but who does that? So if you smoke before or after, it makes your prayer imperfect, but does not invalidate it.
The body stays contaminated through the consumption of alcohol. Smoking also contaminates the body and brings harm to oneself and worse, to passive smokers – which is a gross injustice to your neighbour. Nevertheless, the prayers must still be done without fail.
Angels are beautiful and glorious beings. One of the things they do is to record the deeds of every person. They don’t go near smokers because that is filthy. If you want your dhikr or du`a to be accepted, make sure you are clean from all filth, wear the best clothes and put on perfume. Don’t smoke while you’re praying or making dhikr. That defeats the whole purpose of gaining high stations of beauty and perfection. Mawlana Shaykh Nazim has always for years been telling us that smoking is an illness deliberately put upon us by Shaytan for our ruin. Why do our people persist in following it?
Yes the problem we see everywhere nowadays is that people come into mosques smelling of cigarettes. Some even dare smoke right in front of the mosque gate, while some have the galls to smoke within the mosque compound. They don’t even bother to clean their mouths. Some places you could smell the strong cigarette stench when you make sajdah on the carpet. In some countries even the religious scholars smoke. This makes the people even more confused and no one feels obliged to speak up against it, while the smokers remain happy. This is the state we are in, which is an outrage.
Quit smoking by reciting Astaghfirullah 100 times a day and Allah shall purify you. It is unanimous in all four schools of Law that smoking is Haram. Smoking is a folly and an activity for the mindless bigots. It is better you give that money you spend on cigarettes to Sadaqah or towards your family. Refer to these posts: “Addiction and Islamic work” and “Healthy Cigarette?”
Abdul Shakur Hadi
