Smoking shisha or hookah is a centuries old tradition of the Middle East and the Subcontinent, a fad that is fast gaining popularity amongst the pleasure seeking young and old in the West. Shisha rituals symbolises the time of laziness,debauchery and hedonism of the medieval Ottoman times when the Islamic world and Christendom considered shisha and hookah nothing but a tyrannical sultan’s past time. Smoking is not part of Muslim etiquette or Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him), Shahaba or the Tabi’een.
Smoking tobacco was frowned upon by early Muslim religious schools and condemned for its lax attitudes and associated social evils, the practice of smoking tobacco and later opium was largely popularised under Napoleon’s conquest of the Orient in the 18th century. Contemporary religious establishment in the Muslim world have considered shisha or hookah smoking as merely makruh or ” disliked” demonstrating once again the malaise of our religious scholars. They have miserably failed to comprehend smoking’s associated dangers and its overall harmful effects to individual and health costs to society.
In Perth, one can witness the subtle growth in Shisha bars, while proving a boon for small coffee business but in the long term, shisha smoking has the propensity to injure health of young people forever.
The “Quit Shisha” campaign is also fast gaining popularity in the West because social experimentation with smoking is now considered the next step towards illicit drug abuse. WA Health Department and local councils should monitor the growth in Perth’s Shisha bars and enforce the same regulation as imposed upon traditional smoking.
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