Shisha

Shisha 'as harmful as cigarettes'

Smoking a shisha pipe is as bad for people as smoking tobacco, the Department of Health and the Centre for Tobacco Control Research has found.

People who smoke shisha, or herbal tobacco, can suffer from high carbon monoxide levels, its research revealed.

It found one session of smoking shisha resulted in carbon monoxide levels at least four to five times higher than the amount produced by a cigarette.

High levels of carbon monoxide can lead to brain damage and unconsciousness.

Shisha is an Arabic water-pipe in which fruit-scented tobacco is burnt using coal, passed through an ornate water vessel and inhaled through a hose.

Advertorial: The Hookah/Shisha - Is it a safe option?

By Oldham Community Health Services

The Hookah also known as Shisha has been used to smoke tobacco for about 400 years. It has various other names, one being a water pipe.

It exists in a variety of sizes, shapes and designs. The tobacco used can have one of many different flavours. It is burned using glowing charcoal. The smoke produced is passed though water before being inhaled using a mouthpiece attached to a flexible tube.

Many users believe that smoking tobacco in this way is less harmful than using cigarettes.

This isn’t true.

Using a Hookah/Shisha often happens in a group. Everyone shares the same mouthpiece. This can lead to the spread of diseases such as tuberculosis (TB), herpes, hepatitis and other viruses.

Is smoking Shisha allowed?

Question: Over the last year about FIVE Shisha restaurants opened in my local town, so is smoking Shisha allowed?

Answer by Shaykh Salim Giza

In the name of Allah the most Beneficent and Merciful.

Smoking Shisha or Huqqa carries a ruling depending upon the ingredients. If the ingredients is only sweet smelling flavoured fruits then the ruling is Makrooh (preferably disliked). If the ingredients have harmful ingredients then the ruling would start at Makrooh Tahrimi (reprehensible) to Haram (forbidden). This depends upon the harm that it may cause the human body.

Allah says in the Quran:

"And do not throw yourself into destruction with your own hands." (Baqarah 195).

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