Answer
Wa `alaykum as-salamu wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
Indeed, giving up smoking or any other habit should be based, or at least started, with lawful methods and techniques; resorting to unlawful ways should be the last choice.
In his response to your question, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and an Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states:
If this is the only way someone can quit smoking, then it may not be haram to resort to it. However, I know many people who quit smoking by using dhikr and relying on the help of Allah.
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 having 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 have 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 away 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 lit a cigarette, cancel that thought by repeating subhanaAllah (Glory be to Allah), al-hamdullillahi (Praise be to Allah), Allahuakbar (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 that Allah has made it easy. You can expect Allah to help you, if only you turn sincerely to Him and surrender yourself to Him.
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.