Can i use a nicotine patch during Ramadan?

[Yusuf Shukur]

 I smoke, but I'm quitting soon. Is it okay to use a patch during Ramadan fasting hours? If not are there any other options? Why is it haram to smoke during Ramadan i the first place? It's not eating or drinking. There is no nutrient going into the body. I'm sunni but still interested in shia rulings.

[Uni Student]

54 minutes ago, Ishmail Ali As-Shukur said:

 Why is it haram to smoke during Ramadan i the first place?

 

It just is

54 minutes ago, Ishmail Ali As-Shukur said:

It's not eating or drinking.

Neither is sexual activity, vomiting, or dunking one's head underwater

[Labyika ya Khamenei]

Smoking is haram in first place. Anything that harms your body is haram. 

[علوي]

14 hours ago, Labyika ya Khamenei said:

Smoking is haram

Quote

Q1391. Is it permissible to buy, sell, and smoke tobacco?

A: There is no objection to buying, selling, and using tobacco per se. However, should it spell a noticeable harmful effect to one’s well-being, it is not permissible to smoke, buy or sell it.

https://www.leader.ir/en/book/32/Practical-Laws-of-Islam

The above is Ayatollah Khamenei's view on smoking tobacco, I'm not sure where you heard that it's haram. Yeah, smoking which is "noticeably harmful" to one's well-being is haram, but not smoking in general. 

[Labyika ya Khamenei]

7 hours ago, -Rejector- said:

The above is Ayatollah Khamenei's view on smoking tobacco, I'm not sure where you heard that it's haram. Yeah, smoking which is "noticeably harmful" to one's well-being is haram, but not smoking in general. 

Islam prevented humans of eating or drinking or using every thing that is harmful for health and the more harmful the prevention of its cause would be more serious until it reached the level of prohibition. Imam Khomeini (may Allah’s mercy be sent on him) said:" Eating what is harmful for man is forbidden."[1] It is clear that the criterion for being forbidden, is to be harmful, whether by eating or other ways, there is not difference. Cigarettes are one of those things that’s use is harmful for man’s health, but is this damage so much that using it would be forbidden or not? It depends on people and different conditions.

 

Ayatollah Kamene’i answered a question about this and said: “The rule with various levels of harms that followed by using tobacco, are different. And in general, if the using of tobacco was that much which caused a remarkable harm for the body it isn't allowed. And if person knows that by starting smoking it will reach that level, isn't allowed.”[2]

 

[1] Tawdih al-Masa’il (?), ruling 2630

 

[2] Ibid, ruling 1407

 

All smoking causes harm before they said cigarettes doesn't harm, now everyone knows it harms samething with vapes. 

Edited March 28, 2022 by Labyika ya Khamenei

[EiE]

quit during month of ramadhan. and don't return back to it.

[kadhim]

On 3/24/2022 at 9:30 PM, Ishmail Ali As-Shukur said:

 I smoke, but I'm quitting soon. Is it okay to use a patch during Ramadan fasting hours? If not are there any other options? Why is it haram to smoke during Ramadan i the first place? It's not eating or drinking. There is no nutrient going into the body. I'm sunni but still interested in shia rulings.

Salams,

Don’t quote me on this, but it would seem that a nicotine patch might be fine.

For example, check out the following from Ali Sistani (https://www.sistani.org/english/book/48/2263/)

Ruling 1555. Injections and intravenous drips do not invalidate a fast even if the former is an energy injection and the latter a glucose-saline drip. Similarly, a spray that is used for asthma does not invalidate a fast provided that the medicine only enters the lungs. Applying medicine [such as drops] to the eyes and ears does not invalidate a fast either, even if its taste reaches the throat. Likewise, if medicine is applied in the nose, it does not invalidate a fast as long as it does not reach the throat.
 

As for why smoking is broadly seen to break the fast in the first place (there is ikhtilaaf / scholarly disagreement about whether smoking is Ok in general), it’s an opinion by precaution. For example from the same link from Sistani:

Ruling 1585. The obligatory precaution is that a fasting person must not cause the smoke of cigarettes, tobacco, or something similar to reach his throat.
 

Note the language of “obligatory precaution.” Note also this is in a section of rulings related to “swallowing / letting thick dust reach the throat.” 
The precaution language means that there is an argument for it being so, but there’s some ambiguity about it. It’s in the section about swallowing dust because that is the closest precedent that is being applied. There are no primary texts that talk about smoking, because tobacco didn’t get to the Middle East until 1000 years later. 

The dust thing as I understand it came from situations of someone swallowing dust from things like flour. The idea is that like dust, smoke is something substantial, with solid particles to it. The concern also seems to be that some of it will be swallowed. Generally the idea is not to put anything into the digestive tract.

But otherwise taking things into the body is generally Ok. So that’s why liquid enemas are considered to break the fast, but eye drops, IV or intramuscular injections, or inhalers that just go to the lungs are seen to not break the fast. 

So for example someone might ask whether a liquid vaporizer might not  break the fast or not, since it’s a light vapor rather than a substantial smoke. I don’t know. I could see it being argued, but you can talk to a scholar if you’re unsure. 

[Ali_Hussain]

22 hours ago, kadhim said:

Salams,

Don’t quote me on this, but it would seem that a nicotine patch might be fine.

For example, check out the following from Ali Sistani (https://www.sistani.org/english/book/48/2263/)

Ruling 1555. Injections and intravenous drips do not invalidate a fast even if the former is an energy injection and the latter a glucose-saline drip. Similarly, a spray that is used for asthma does not invalidate a fast provided that the medicine only enters the lungs. Applying medicine [such as drops] to the eyes and ears does not invalidate a fast either, even if its taste reaches the throat. Likewise, if medicine is applied in the nose, it does not invalidate a fast as long as it does not reach the throat.
 

As for why smoking is broadly seen to break the fast in the first place (there is ikhtilaaf / scholarly disagreement about whether smoking is Ok in general), it’s an opinion by precaution. For example from the same link from Sistani:

Ruling 1585. The obligatory precaution is that a fasting person must not cause the smoke of cigarettes, tobacco, or something similar to reach his throat.
 

Note the language of “obligatory precaution.” Note also this is in a section of rulings related to “swallowing / letting thick dust reach the throat.” 
The precaution language means that there is an argument for it being so, but there’s some ambiguity about it. It’s in the section about swallowing dust because that is the closest precedent that is being applied. There are no primary texts that talk about smoking, because tobacco didn’t get to the Middle East until 1000 years later. 

The dust thing as I understand it came from situations of someone swallowing dust from things like flour. The idea is that like dust, smoke is something substantial, with solid particles to it. The concern also seems to be that some of it will be swallowed. Generally the idea is not to put anything into the digestive tract.

But otherwise taking things into the body is generally Ok. So that’s why liquid enemas are considered to break the fast, but eye drops, IV or intramuscular injections, or inhalers that just go to the lungs are seen to not break the fast. 

So for example someone might ask whether a liquid vaporizer might not  break the fast or not, since it’s a light vapor rather than a substantial smoke. I don’t know. I could see it being argued, but you can talk to a scholar if you’re unsure. 

Salaam brother, nice to see you posting again, I hope everything is going well.

[kadhim]

On 4/9/2022 at 8:31 PM, Ali_Hussain said:

Salaam brother, nice to see you posting again, I hope everything is going well.

Salaam,

Alhamdulillah, I’m well, all things considered. 

Got remarried in 2016, alhamdulillah.

Older kids are in high school and also have a 4 year-old now.

Been busy with work and family life. Do some spare time writing in other places—Quora particularly and discovering Reddit lately. 

Saw Shiachat mentioned somewhere and thought I’d poke in and see what’s up. Cool to see a lot of the old guard still hanging around. 

And how have you been?

Edited April 11, 2022 by kadhim