Passive smoking means, “to get exposed to the smoke of the cigarettes of other people in confined crowded places”. In confined crowded places, cigarette smoke badly affects those who are not smoking more than those who are. A recent study that was carried out by a number of well-known medical scientists showed that, like active smoking, passive smoking increases amounts of cholesterol in the blood of those who do not smoke, which makes them more liable to cardiac and vascular diseases, skin and pharynx cancers, and other smoking-related diseases. Passive smoking also causes a lot of harm to pregnant women, even if they were non-smokers. Therefore, husbands who smoke in front of their pregnant wives should know the danger of passive smoking on them.

 The study also showed that passive smoking is dangerous for embryos because nicotine sneaks to them along with the nutritional elements they receive from their mother’s body. The study confirms that if a pregnant mother is exposed to cigarette smoke for three hours a day, her embryo is more liable to defects and deformations of speech and is more likely to be mentally retarded. The embryo of a smoker mother is more liable to such problems and diseases as premature birth, underweight, and mental retardation.

 Cigarette smoke badly affects not only the embryo of a passive or active smoker mother but also her grandchildren, as such bad effects are transferred from one generation to another. Whether directly or indirectly inhaled, cigarette smoke also affects badly fertility of children and grandchildren.

 The foregoing facts about passive smoking, with respect to men, women, and children, have been extracted from authentic scientific study and research. In this context, Allah, Most Gracious, says,

“Those who follow the Messenger, the illiterate Prophet, whom they found mentioned in their Torah and Gospel, and who commands them for deeds of righteousness and forbids them from loathsome sinful deeds, and allows them as lawful good things and prohibits them as unlawful evil things.”

[VII; 157]

 In short, since it has been scientifically proved that smoking is an evil harmful habit, it is definitely included in the unlawful evil things mentioned in the above Quranic Verse.

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