Is Working in Tobacco Industry or Newsagent Selling Tobacco Permissible?

Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel

Question

Would it be permissible to work in the tobacco industry that sells pure tobacco or a newsagent that sells tobacco with other products?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate.

I pray you are in good faith and health. Thank you for your question.

Working in Tobacco Industry

It is considered prohibitively disliked (makruh tahriman) to smoke. Therefore, it would also be considered prohibitively disliked to sell cigarettes, e-vapes, and other related products. The harmful effects of cigarettes and smoking are well-known and widely recognized now at the individual, societal, and environmental levels.

Cigarettes are not only corrupting but also polluting the earth as a whole. Smoking is ruining lives at both individual and societal levels. Those who said it was mildly disliked or permissible were because the implications were not manifest or yet not known to them during their time.

In light of the above and applying the Islamic legal maxim “there should be no harm to oneself nor to others”, vaping or e-cigarettes are prohibitively disliked, therefore selling them too.

Permissible to Work in a Newsagent Selling Tobacco

It would be permissible to work in a shop selling tobacco with other products. [Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar]

I would like you to go through the valuable answers and links below. You will receive guidance and direction, in sha’ Allah.

Related:

• The Legal Rulings on Chewing Tobacco and Smoking Cigarettes – SeekersGuidance
• Smoking Cigarettes, Cigars and Pipes (daruliftaa.com)
• Is vaping harmful? | Vaping side effects | Cancer Research UK
• Quick Facts on the Risks of E-cigarettes for Kids, Teens, and Young Adults | CDC
• The chemistry and toxicology of vaping – ScienceDirect

Why not begin your search for knowledge by signing up for a course on SeekersGuidance?

I pray this helps with your question.
Wassalam,
[Mawlana] Ilyas Patel
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Mawlana Ilyas Patel is a traditionally-trained scholar who has studied in the UK, India, Pakistan, Syria, Jordan, and Turkey. He started his early education in the UK. He went on to complete the hifz of the Quran in India, then enrolled in an Islamic seminary in the UK, where he studied the secular and ‘Aalimiyya sciences. He then traveled to Karachi, Pakistan. He has been an Imam in Rep of Ireland for several years. He has taught hifz of the Quran, Tajwid, Fiqh, and many other Islamic sciences to children and adults onsite and online extensively in the UK and Ireland. He taught at a local Islamic seminary for 12 years in the UK, where he was a librarian and a teacher of Islamic sciences. He currently resides in the UK with his wife. His interest is a love of books and gardening.