JANUARY 1 — Muslims have, for a long time, ignored the issue of smoking, regarding it merely as makruh (reprehensible, detested, hateful, odious). Makruh acts are not forbidden (haram) but discouraged.
In 1995, the Fatwa Committee of the National Council for Islamic Religious Affairs of Malaysia discussed the issue relating to smoking from the view of Islam and declared that “smoking is haram in Islam because in it there is harm.”
Twenty years later in 2015, the same Committee declared that electronic cigarettes too are haram.
So, this year is the 30th and 10th anniversary of the two respective declarations called fatwa, which is a ruling on a point of Islamic law given by a recognised authority.
A fatwa is binding on every Muslim in each state upon its publication in the Gazette. It is the religious duty of every Muslim to abide by and uphold the fatwa, unless he is permitted by Hukum Syarak (Islamic law) to depart from the fatwa in matters of personal observance.
The fatwa declaring smoking as haram has been published in the Gazette in the states of Selangor, Penang and Kelantan. Meanwhile, the fatwa on electronic cigarettes has been gazetted in Johor.
Any Muslim in the states, which have gazetted a fatwa, who acts in contempt of, or defies, disobeys or disputes the fatwa commits an offence under the state’s Syariah Criminal Offences Enactment.
By Article 160(2) of the Federal Constitution, State law is law made by the Legislature of a State and therefore written law. By the same Article, law includes written law.
So, who says smoking is not an offence under the law? It is an offence for a Muslim in at least three states.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
