How can I break this promise?
We shouldn't make promises we don't intend to keep...
I'm 18 years old and I smoke from 9th standard grade.
A few days ago my mother caught me smoking and she made me to make a swear of quran to never do such bad things.
But now it's almost a week and I'm getting urging to smoke but can't do as I'm afraid of Allah.
Is there any procedure to break that swear?
shan
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Assalaamualaikam
I can think of several reasons why you really shouldn't break this promise...
- Smoking is an addiction. The chemicals in cigarettes cause a physical addiction, as well as the act of smoking being very habit-forming. Any addiction is bad for us - it becomes our priority in life and distracts us from what really matters.
- Smoking is really, really bad for your health. Current research shows that around 60% of people who smoke will die from a smoking-related disease. Smoking-related diseases are horrible - they're horrible to live with and horrible to die from. The most common ones include COPD, heart disease, and cancer. Don't risk it.
- Smoking has a whole bunch of unpleasant effects on your body. For example, premature ageing of the skin, yellowish staining on hands and teeth, smelling of cigarette smoke.
- Smoking affects our cleanliness and purity for prayer. We can't always be in a state of purity, but it's good practice to avoid things that have such an impact on our physical cleanliness, when they're things that we can easily avoid (like smoking).
- The tobacco companies don't tend to be particularly ethical. These organisations may also be involved in other unethical practices - eg. oppressive labour systems, military/defence funding, the alcohol industry... While giving up your cigarettes won't necessarily stop the actions of the company, you can at least know that you aren't contributing to their funds - that it's not in your name.
I could go on, but inshaAllah you can at least think about those points. I hope that you decide to keep your promise to your mother, inshaAllah. If you need help to stay away from cigarettes, or you find yourself starting to smoke again, go and speak with your GP or family doctor - they should, inshaAllah, have access to local smoking cessation programmes.
Midnightmoon
IslamicAnswers.com editor