Is vaping haram?

Why the scholars forbid it

The ruling does not rest on a verse naming tobacco — it rests on the harm, which the scholars treat as the deciding factor. Ibn Baz's fatwa on smoking and the shisha pipe is short and unambiguous: smoking is forbidden because of the extensive harm in it, and every variety of it is forbidden. The Muslim is obliged to leave it, to beware of it, and not to sit with those who do it.

IslamWeb applies exactly this reasoning to vaping. In its fatwa on selling electronic cigarette devices, it states that selling devices made exclusively for e-cigarettes — what is called the vape — or promoting them, or helping others to do so, is not permitted, because smoking is forbidden on account of the harm that makes it forbidden. It cites the verse:

"And he makes lawful for them the good things and prohibits for them the evil things"— Qur'an 7:157

The argument runs: the harm is established, the harm is what makes it forbidden, and the electronic cigarette carries the same harm. So it carries the same ruling.

The harm is the operative reason

IslamWeb's detailed fatwa on e-cigarettes sets out what the harm consists of, drawing on the warnings of the Saudi Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization. The device resembles the conventional cigarette closely: it contains a miniature electronic component, a charger, and concentrated nicotine, along with highly toxic substances. If the device malfunctions, a person may suffer acute nicotine poisoning.

The fatwa also addresses the claim that vaping helps people quit. It calls this one of the falsehoods promoted by the manufacturing companies, and notes that experts in these products have denied it — quoting the WHO official responsible for combating tobacco, who said it is 100% wrong to assert that these cigarettes are a safe treatment helping smokers quit. A study published in the journal Cancer is cited as finding that these cigarettes increase the likelihood of lung, brain and neck cancer.

Because the harm is established by the people of expertise — the physicians — the fatwa concludes that it is obligatory to abandon promoting such cigarettes, that consuming them is forbidden, and that selling them and earning from them in any form is forbidden. The principle it invokes is that whatever is forbidden to use is forbidden to sell.

What follows from the ruling

Once vaping is forbidden to consume, a whole set of related dealings falls under the same ruling. IslamWeb draws these out across several fatwas:

• Selling and promoting: selling e-cigarettes is forbidden, as is selling anything that promotes them or assists in consuming or storing them — that is cooperation in sin and transgression.
• Working in the trade: working on a project for electronic smoking is not permitted, nor is working for a company that sells e-cigarettes. Writing specifications for e-cigarette devices is likewise forbidden if the work is exclusively for that trade.
• Indirect assistance: even selling the pouches or accessories used with these cigarettes is forbidden, because it helps the user toward a forbidden end.
• A vow to quit: if someone vowed to stop smoking, e-cigarettes fall under that vow, since there is no difference between electronic and ordinary cigarettes in the ruling.
• An oath not to buy cigarettes: buying or using e-cigarettes counts as breaking it, since they are the same in ruling and in health effect — unless the person specifically intended the traditional cigarette alone.

The one concession IslamWeb allows is necessity in earning, not in consuming. A woman working in a business tied to these products may continue to draw her income until she finds other work, if she is genuinely in need and not supported by a husband or relative. That is a concession about livelihood under duress — it does not make the product lawful.

The claim that it helps you quit

This is the argument most often raised, and the scholars address it directly. IslamWeb's fatwa on using e-cigarettes to quit smoking states that specialists — such as the World Health Organization — have established that e-cigarettes contain highly toxic substances, not nicotine alone, and that the claim they help people quit is a rumour with no basis in reality. The same fatwa notes that the study in Cancer casts doubt on whether these cigarettes help cancer patients quit at all.

Shaykh al-Albani, in his discussion of smoking, makes the broader point that no one is truly compelled to smoke, and that the sense of compulsion is a whisper of Shaytan. He notes that the addict's temper in Ramadan, when he cannot smoke, shows what the habit has done to him — and that the way out is gradual, not a single step.

In practice

If you vape, the ruling is to leave it and repent, and to do so by tapering rather than all at once if that is what it takes. If you sell or promote it, that income is not lawful, and you should look for work that is not tied to it. If you are supporting yourself and have no alternative yet, you may continue to draw the income while you search, as IslamWeb permitted in the case of necessity. And if someone around you vapes, the same reasoning that Ibn Baz gave about smoking applies: avoid sitting with it where you can.

Key takeaways

• Vaping is forbidden, on the same basis as smoking: the established harm.
• The harm is the operative reason, and it is established by physicians and the World Health Organization, not by analogy to something else.
• Selling, promoting, or working in the trade is forbidden as cooperation in sin — and necessity permits drawing an income only until other work is found.
• The claim that it helps you quit is rejected by the scholars as a marketing falsehood contradicted by the experts.

Further reading

• Shaykh Ibn Baz, Majmu' al-Fatawa wa al-Maqalat
• Shaykh al-Albani, Jami' Turath al-'Allamah al-Albani fi al-Fiqh — the section on smoking

And Allah knows best.