Fight Your Ego Against Smoking

As-Salāmu ‘Alaykum wa RaḥmatuLlāhi wa Barakātuh. A‘ūdhu BiLlāhi Minash-shayṭāni r-rajīm. BismiLlāhi r-Raḥmāni r-Raḥīm. Wa ṣ-Salātu wa s-Salāmu ‘alá Rasūlinā Muḥammadin Sayyidi l-Awwalīna wa l-Akhirīn. Madad yā RasūlAllāh, Madad yā Sādāti Aṣḥābi RasūliLlāh, Madad yā Mashāyikhinā, Dastūr Mawlana Sheikh Abdullāh al-Fā’iz ad-Dāghistāni, Sheikh Muḥammad Nāẓim al- Ḥaqqānī. Madad. Ṭarīqatunā aṣ-Suḥbah wa l-Khayru fi l-Jam‘iyyah.

Bismi Llāhi r-Raḥmāni r-Raḥīm:

(Qur’ān 29:06). ’Wa Man Jāhada Fa’innamā Yujāhidu Linafsihi’, ’And whoever strives only strives for [the benefit of] himself.’ Ṣadaqa Llāhu l-’Aẓīm.

Now, jihād is against our egos. Because a person cannot do jihad alone. When our Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wa-sallam returned from a battle, from jihād, he ﷺ said, “We have come from the small jihad to the great jihad.” Our Prophet ṣallá Llāhu ‘alayhi wasallam meant that fighting the enemy is easier than fighting one’s own ego. A person should not do what their ego desires in everything, they should oppose it.

There are many things in which a person must oppose their ego in and wage war against. One of them is evil because it has no benefit whatsoever. Grand Shaykh Mawlana Shaykh ‘Abdu Llāh ad-Dāghestānī used to say that it is made from shayṭān’s excrements, his filth. And that is tobacco. All tobacco products, cigarettes, and all sorts of things derived from it. It is a plant that has absolutely no benefit. It is nothing but evil. It causes all kinds of disease. It causes discomfort to those around it, brings illness to oneself, and is bad to others, meaning it’s harmful to those around it.

Therefore, may Allāh ﷻ protect us from it. A person who is afflicted with it becomes a prisoner. It becomes very difficult to escape it. Few escape it. But as a jihād against one’s ego, jihād for Allāh’s ﷻ command is the duty of a believer. It’s something that has to be done in Islām. Of course, since we can’t do jihād alone, we must wage this jihād upon our egos; at least against ourselves, against our egos. We must strive to be free from it. We should get rid of it.

It is not a thing that has any benefit. No one can say that it has any benefit. Even the places where it’s planted, it destroys its land. It takes several years for that land to recover,

for another useful plant to grow. Shukr to Allāh ﷻ, things have changed now. In the past, they would plant thousands, hundreds of thousands of acres of this filthy plant. Then they would harvest it, put it in warehouses, and pay the farmer. A few years later, because it was something superfluous, not useful in anything else, they would throw it into the sea. Shukr to Allāh ﷻ, they gave up this act. Instead, at least more useful plants, plants beneficial to humans, were planted. Shukr to Allāh ﷻ, that issue is gone. As we said, it was harmful from all sides; it’s harmful to plant it, it was a waste of money on fuel, equipment, storage, etc. So much land was used and wasted in vain to plant that harmful plant. Shukr to Allāh ﷻ, they’ve stopped planting it. In shā’a Llāh, people will also be saved from it.

But whatever the wisdom is, shayṭān never gets tired. You still see children start smoking, acting as if they’ve saved the world when they light a cigarette. And well… they smoke in toilets. The most favorite place for smokers is the toilet, amidst those foul smells. This foul smell of tobacco seems to exceed other smells; it’s even dirtier. That’s why, they’re most pleased with it.

Of course, it doesn’t affect some people, and it affects others. It affects most people. Now, it definitely harms 99% of people. It can be that maybe 1% are unharmed. For example, years ago, we were performing ablution in a mosque in Cyprus. There was an old man there smoking. Our late Ahmet Salman Efendi, who used to smoke a lot but had quit, told him, “Uncle, don’t smoke this, it will harm you. If you don’t smoke, you will live a long life.” The, he asked the man, “How old are you?” “I’m 95 years old.” “Since when have you been smoking?” “Since I was little. I’ve been smoking since I was a child,” he said. It doesn’t affect some people like that. But it’s harmful to most, and it harms those around them too. That foul smell clings to the man and spreads everywhere. People try to stay away from them. When you come near them, they smell like an ashtray. So, the harms are endless, not the benefits. They say about things, “The benefits are endless.” The harms and badness of tobacco are endless. May Allāh ﷻ save us. May Allāh ﷻ protect us. May Allāh ﷻ save us from falling into this evil, from this state, in shā’a Llāh. May Allāh ﷻ help us. Many people come to us saying, “Make du’ā’ for us so we can be saved from this.” We are making du’ā’, in shā’a Llāh. May Allāh ﷻ save us from this trap of shayṭān.

Wa min Allāhi t-Tawfīq. Al-Fātiḥa.

Mawlana Sheikh Muhammad Adil ar-Rabbani 17 December 2025/ 26 Jumada al-Thani 1447 Fajr Prayer – Akbaba Dergah, Istanbul