The issue on “vaping” or smoking e-cigarettes has recently attracted much debate in Malaysia. Many youngsters are picking up this trend for two reasons: as a cheaper alternative to smoking cigarettes (whose prices have gone up exorbitantly), and as a means to quit smoking.
The cabinet has recently come to a decision that there is no plan to make vaping illegal. The Ministry of Health, however, did issue a statement that both cigarettes and vapes are enormously harmful as they contain nicotine — which is medically proven to lead to cancer.
Due to the fact that vaping and its electronic accessories only recently penetrated the Malaysian market, fatwas on this particular practice are relatively few.
At present, only the Federal Territory has issued a clear ruling forbidding vapes. Its mufti, Datuk Dr Zulkifli Mohamad al-Bakri, has argued that vaping is very similar to smoking a cigarette. Using the analogy that smoking cigarettes is haram because it is detrimental to health, he concludes that vaping is also forbidden. Such practice clearly causes harm (mafsadah), and this contradicts the teachings of the Quran and Sunnah, as well as the objectives of Shariah (Maqasid al-Shari’ah). Allah says in the Quran: “And spend in the way of Allah and do not throw [yourselves] with your [own] hands into destruction [by refraining]. And do good; indeed, Allah loves the doers of good” (195: al-Baqarah). Such a reminder is also be emphasised in another verse, “O you who have believed, eat from the good things which We have provided for you and be grateful to Allah if it is [indeed] Him that you worship” (al-Baqarah: 172).
In the Hadith, the Prophet Muhammad said that “La dharar wala dhirar”, which means that “there should be neither harming nor reciprocating harm” (Narrated by Ahmad, Malik, Ibn Majah & al-Daraquni). Another point to consider is the Islamic legal maxim “dar’ul mafasid muqaddamun ‘ala jalbi al-masoleh” (preventing damage takes priority over obtaining benefit).
Overall, vaping is an act that leads to harmfulness in both the short term and long term. Such practice is highly prohibited, because Islam teaches its followers to protect their faith, life, intellect, posterity and wealth. These protections are derived from the highest ranking of Maqasid, namely the necessities or essentials (Dharuriyyat).
The decision to prohibit vaping can be simply based on the analogy with the conventional cigarettes — both carry the same result: harmfulness.
Recently, deputy director-general of Health Datuk Dr Lokman Hakim Sulaiman made a very vigorous statement on vaping. Because vaping is relatively new in this country, there is no law on it yet and no concrete local studies on its long-term effects. Currently, the ministry’s technical committee is still studying and researching its health effects. However, he stresses that there are sufficient worldwide studies showing that vaping is harmful, and based on this, the committee has advised the ministry to ban vapes.
It is better to take precautionary steps, rather than to realise the bad effects of vaping later. Citing the case of cigarettes, World Health Organisation scientists only found out in the 1960s that smoking causes lung cancer, but people had already been smoking for the past 100 years.
The ministry also believes that this new practice can lead to addiction, thus it had proposed to the government to ban e-cigarettes or vaping on the grounds that it has high chances to become a “gateway” to smoking tobacco cigarettes, especially among the younger age group. Such a measure had already been taken in our neighbouring countries like Thailand and Cambodia, and in other developed nations like the United States and several European countries.
However, the proposal was turned down by the cabinet simply because it wanted further studies to be carried out before any decision is made. Yet, even without a ban, stiff action had already been carried out by the Ministry of Health in the form of large-scale (and controversial) raids against vape suppliers due to unapproved levels of nicotine which is controlled under the Poisons Act of 1952 (Revised 1989).
The National Fatwa Council has yet to come out with a clear ruling on vaping. Fatwas forbidding smoking (1995) and shisha (2013) were issued by the National Fatwa Council and some State Fatwa Committees, but not on vaping. The statement by Professor Emeritus Tan Sri Dr Abdul Shukor Husin, chairman of the National Fatwa Council, that e-cigarettes and vapes could be equated with smoking and shisha is insufficient at the institutional level.
An alarming report presented at the Vaporizer Convention in Kuala Lumpur in June mentioned that the Malaysian vape industry is worth more than half a billion ringgit, the second biggest in the world after the US and the largest in Asia, with an estimated one million vapers in Malaysia. Despite some vapers claiming that this practice can help them to quit smoking, the obvious high health risk of inhaling smoke particles and chemical fumes are undeniable.
I conclude with the suggestion that the National Fatwa Council and respective State Fatwa Committees come out with a clear fatwa on e-cigarettes and vapes. In addition, it is advisable for the government to introduce strict measures and regulations on vaping, as well as close monitoring of the nicotine content in vaping liquids. Prohibiting vaping can block the means (Sad al-Zari’ah) of damage (mafsadah) it can cause to personal health and society (among others), ensuring the benefit (maslahah) of mankind.
The writer is Deputy CEO International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (IAIS), Malaysia