We live in a\ntime and a place where satisfaction dominates our living. From next day\ndelivery on anything you purchase straight to your door to tasks being made\neasier and easier with the advances of technology, our lives are unrecognisable\nto how people lived in the generations before us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the overlooked\nareas regarding this is the satisfaction we place on our food and drink.\nEverything is designed to satisfy our taste first now and little emphasis is\nplaced on nutrition like it once was. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But by far\nthe biggest culprit of what we ingest for the sake of pleasure is smoking. The\nirony is that for those who smoke, if you ask them to recall their first\ncigarette or smoking incident, they will probably say it wasn\u2019t a nice\nexperience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But this is\nthe trick of Shaitaan, it convince us that what is good for us is not and what\nis bad for us is good. We need to be mindful of this as it helps explain why taking\nsmoke into the lungs is something we would ever want to do for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the arguments\nfor those who wish to smoke is to say that it is not specifically mentioned in\nthe Quran and therefore it isn\u2019t forbidden for use. This argument carries\nlittle weight as there are many things that are obviously not permissible today\nbut not mentioned in the Quran revealed back then. We need to understand that\nAllah SWT has given us the Quran as a book of guidance and from it we can\nderive lessons that are applicable today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so the\nimam referenced ayat 4 of Sura Al-Maidah which is translated to say:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They ask you, Prophet, what is lawful for them. Say, \u2018All\ngood things are lawful for you.\u2019 [This includes] what you have taught your\nbirds and beasts of prey to catch, teaching them as God has taught you, so eat\nwhat they catch for you, but first pronounce God\u2019s name over it. Be mindful of\nGod: He is swift to take account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dear\nbrothers and sisters, from this ayat we can see that Allah SWT specifically\nstates that things which are lawful for you to consume are those things that\nare good for you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is no\nscience that states that the act of smoking has benefits. In fact, most smoking\npackets these days graphically illustrate how this act is damaging to body\norgans, from lungs to the heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the\nopposite side, to not engage in this habit not only has worldly benefit such as\nhealth and financial benefit, but also has the benefit of the blessing of\navoiding what is impermissible. Only Allah SWT knows how hard it is for someone\nwho is addicted to bad habits to then quit them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For every\nmoment the slave of Allah SWT quits something for the sake of his creator is a\nmoment where he is then earning the reward and blessing of Allah SWT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so this is\nenough for us to know that this is not a permissible act for us. Alongside this\nthe imam also referenced the 157th<\/sup> ayat of Sura Al-Araf which is\ntranslated to say:<\/p>\n\n\n\n who follow the Messenger- the unlettered prophet they find\ndescribed in the Torah that is with them, and in the Gospel- who commands them\nto do right and forbids them to do wrong, who makes good things lawful to them\nand bad things unlawful, and relieves them of their burdens, and the iron\ncollars that were on them. So it is those who believe him, honour and help him,\nand who follow the light which has been sent down with him, who will succeed.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dear\nbrothers and sisters, this is talking about those who will succeed and although\nit is telling the Jews and Christians at the start that our Prophet SAWS is\nmentioned to them in their scriptures, it finishes by talking of those things\nthat are unlawful to them and again those things that are bad for us fall into\nthis category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so, for\nthose of us who are trapped by this habit and wish to quit, today\u2019s reminder\nconcludes with practical steps that we can all take to help us quit this habit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dear\nbrothers and sisters, quitting this habit isn\u2019t easy. But remember that for every\nday you strive to quit for the sake of Allah SWT then that is every day in\nwhich you will reap the reward of your efforts insh\u2019Allah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We live in a time and a place where satisfaction dominates our living. From next day delivery on anything you purchase straight to your door to tasks being made easier and easier with the advances of technology, our lives are unrecognisable to how people lived in the generations before us. One of the overlooked areas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_regular_price":[],"currency_symbol":[],"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon"],"blocksy_meta":[],"post_slider_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","post_slider_layout_landscape_large":"","post_slider_layout_portrait_large":"","post_slider_layout_square_large":"","post_slider_layout_landscape":"","post_slider_layout_portrait":"","post_slider_layout_square":"","full":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salahadeenmosque.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salahadeenmosque.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salahadeenmosque.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salahadeenmosque.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salahadeenmosque.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/salahadeenmosque.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2786\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salahadeenmosque.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salahadeenmosque.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salahadeenmosque.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}