Can Muslims smoke while keeping the fast in #Ramadan ? A thread on the legal debates around smoking, including shisha, during the #RamadanKareem2019

In Shi’i legal discussions, debates around smoking while fasting pick up in the 16th century AD. One can identify three distinct legal views. 1) Rejectionists, those who adopt assertive stance against smoking while fasting, considering dust, smoke, etc breakers of the fast.

The most notable legal opponent of smoking while fasting is the late Ayatollah Kazim Yazdi (d. 1911), author of celebrated legal compendium العورة الوثوق. In it, Yazdi cites medieval narrations going back to Shi’i Imams.

Yazdi notes that the medieval hadiths consider غبار (dust, thick particles of solid matter) breaker of fast, swallowing dust invalidates fast - exceptions made if done so accidentally. Yazdi elaborates view in later work, الجواهر

Yazdi maintained that his view represents majority Shi’i legal opinion - at least among moderns المتأخرين

2) Ambivalent stance, view taken up by modern Shi’i jurists who wrote glosses on Yazdi’s العورة الوثوق, including Ayatollah Muhsin al-Hakim (d. 1970), Ayatollah Abu l-Qasim al-Khu’i (d. 1992), Ayatollah Ruh Allah Khumayni (d. 1989), and Muhammad Rida Golpaygani (d. 1993).

These jurists (above) do not offer legal rulings in the form of fatwa but invite legal position of precaution or avoidance, described in legal-speak as “obligatory precaution”.

3) Accepters, those legalists who did not consider smoking while fasting impressively, or an act that invalidates the fast. They reflect an earlier, mostly early modern legal position common among Shi’i jurists.

Most noted supporters of smoking while fasting position was Muhammad al-‘Amili (d. 1600), author of celebrated work مدارك الأحكام; Muhammad Baqir Sabzawari (d. 1679), author of الذخيرة l; and Fayz Kashani (d. 1680).

Another category of legalisms include independent treatises in defence of smoking while fasting. They include: (a) كشف الأوهام في حلية شرب الغليان في شهر الصيام “Unveiling the Delusions [in Considering Permissible] Smoking Shisha in the Month of Fasting” by Nuri Tabrasi (d. 1902)

(b) By Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab al-Kazemi (d. 1885), titled درة الاسلام في حكم دخان التنباك و انه لا يضر بالصيام - “The Pearl of Islam Considering the Legal Position of Smoking Tobacco which does not Break Fasting”

(c) By Hibat al-din Shahrestani (d. 1967), titled الدخانية في عدم مفطرية الدخان للصيام - “The Smoking Treatise in Establishing that Smoking does not Invalidate the Fast”

We also read in 17th century legal work that Muhammad Baqir Majlisi (d. 1699), the Safavid polymath & legalist, used to smoke shisha while fasting: ان العلامة المجلسي كان "يشرب النرجيلة في شهر رمضان على المنبر و لا يرى الدخان مفطرا"