That thread is here: https://sunniport.com/index.php?thr...ermissible-mufti-zahid-hussain-al-qadri.9054/ another one here: https://sunniport.com/index.php?threads/fakeerkhan-rant.7572/#post-23899
no. the rule about stimulants in the hanafi madh'hab, when they are not liquid, is that they are haram if taken in quantities that makes one inebriated. small quantities are not haram - such as opium seeds for example. --- yes this is true and many mawlana hazrat from UP/bihar chew paan. my late teacher raHimahullah, had a full set of teeth in his mid seventies, clean and shiny, and even though he was from UP, he did not chew paan. when i once asked, he said: it interferes with my qur'an recitation. and his recitation was the most enchanting, wa lillahi'l hamd. --- it was common practice - hookah - or a water pipe, back in the day. there are fatawa of alahazrat on the permissibility of tobacco - and even prior such as shaykh abdul ghani nablusi etc. but back then, it was not easy to set up the paraphernalia; and it was not available all the time. and in the light of other fatawa by alahazrat and other ulama, that one's mouth should be thoroughly rinsed to flush the odour of tobacco before prayer, reciting qur'an and adhkar, this activity was relegated to a short period. so the harms of smoking were not as acute as the later smoking items such as cigarettes. however, there are also studies that put hookah/waterpipe smoking to be even more harmful as the tar content being very high. regardless, even in the west, the harms of smoking were not known - between 1930s-1950s doctors recommended smoking (now it is revealed that the tobacco industry paid for those ads) https://tobacco.stanford.edu/cigarettes/doctors-smoking/more-doctors-smoke-camels/ so the fatwa should be seen in that light. that it was deemed harmless as there was no proof to the contrary. however, in our times, smoking is proven to be detrimental to one's health and is established beyond doubt that it causes coronary disease, lung cancer, mouth cancer, and numerous other diseases. there is no reason why it should be permitted in our age. in fact, i have a partially written article proving from shaykh abdul ghani nablusi himself that tobacco should be outlawed. (strange isn't it - especially from someone who wrote this ; another MS: here.) perhaps i will complete it sometime soon. in sha'Allah. alahazrat's fatwa was in the light of facts available in their time - and should not be judged retrospectively, with the research available in our time. --- https://www.bhclinics.com/single-post/2019/12/11/doctors-prescribed-healthy-cigarette-brands https://ash.org.uk/resources/view/whats-in-a-cigarette https://publications.ersnet.org/content/errev/30/160/200374 https://www.lung.org/quit-smoking/smoking-facts/health-effects/facts-about-hookah https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2672364/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2806861/
Betel quid (paan) contains 2 questionable ingredients: (i) areca/betel nut (also known as supaadi/supaari/kasaili in subcontinent) - both in solid/crushed form and in the paste (mixed with slaked lime) form (ii) zarda - made from tobacco, lime etc. Both the above items are considered psychoactive stimulants. Neither can be considered narcotic (even though few websites would have you believe that). In subcontinent, paan masal/gutkha/zarda are similar variants which are consumed orally. The harmful effects of these have been well documented in recent years. In older generation, none of these ill-effects were known. Caffeine in tea and coffee is also psychoactive. Both caffeine and areca nut/zarda are known to be addictive, in the sense of habit forming and causing craving. Addiction per se can happen to any habit that is hard to kick out - from outright haram (gambling, drug, alcohol etc.) to reprehensible (mobile/screen time/nomophobia, internet, gaming, shopping etc.). Intoxication, on the other hand, immediately affects mental/physical faculty/senses, besides having long-term adverse health effects. WHO defines intoxicant as a substance that "results in disturbances in the level of consciousness, cognition, perception, judgement, affect, or behaviour, or other psychophysiological functions and responses". But there's a huge difference between something being addictive and being intoxicating. Psychoactive (no matter how devious it sounds) is not necessarily psychedelic/intoxicating/narcotic. Excessive addiction is problematic, but can't be technically qualified as intoxicating/khamr. It will be far-fetched to say categorically that addiction to mubah/makruh substances/habits will definitely affect mental faculties. BTW, even water consumed in excess can intoxicate! There was an old post by @abu Hasan on why tobacco may be considered haram due to its proven ill-effects. That's a matter of interpretation in light of modern medical research. Can mutlaq/absolute fiqh ruling of prohibition be given in such matters? ---- Many people don't know that nutmeg (known as jaiphal in subcontinent), which is a commonly used spice ingredients in subcontinent masala/biryani etc., contains psychedelic compound, myristicin, which can cause hallucination. It's considered "safe" if ingested in small quantity (< 5 gm). Would such dishes prepared using nutmeg be considered haram?
I heard Alahazrat also used to eat betel quid, but is this true? I'm not sure if I heard whether he ate it with or without tobacco, but I believe I also heard that he sometimes used to smoke tobacco itself separately anyway.
It is not Haram. It is Makruh with or without tobacco. It would be Haram IF clearly stated Haram or something on which was consensus of Haramness used in Paan.
My apologies in advance if I started this thread in the wrong place. Betel quid (referring to the mixture without tobacco) is often chewed by our people at least in the Indian subcontinent, but is it considered haram and/or also a khamr? I personally have never enjoyed betel quid even without tobacco but I have eaten some dry fruit mixes in the past made by various brands. Some of those mixes do contain areca nut in them as well. Wikipedia says that a stimulant known as arecoline within the areca nut is what makes betel quid addictive, and suggests that areca nut as well as possibly the arecoline as well is carcinogenic, causing oral as well as esophageal cancers. Does anyone know what the four madhhabs say about this? Iirc classifying a substance as a khamr (which is inherently haram) has more to do with whether or not it has any one intoxicating effect specifically rather than being addictive or having other adverse effects, but is chewing betel quid and eating areca nut still haram otherwise?
