Islam
Islam prohibits all drugs that are not medically prescribed. Islam's prohibition of drugs stems from two concerns:
- their intoxication effects
- their harm to the human body
There are numerous verses in the Qur'an and hadith that ban intoxicants (including alcohol). The prophet Muhammad said:
Every intoxicant is like alcohol, and every (type of) alcohol is prohibited. (Muslim)
The second reason for banning drugs is that they are believed to have a harmful effect on the body. The Qur'an says,
"And make not your own hands contribute to your destruction." Surah, Al-Baqara, 2: 195
The Muslim nations of Turkey and Egypt were instrumental in banning opium, cocaine, and cannabis when the League of Nations committed to the 1925 International Convention relating to opium and other drugs (later the 1934 Dangerous Drugs Act). The primary goal was to ban opium and cocaine, but cannabis was added to the list, and it remained there largely unnoticed due to the much more heated debate over opium and coca. The 1925 Act has been the foundation upon which every subsequent policy in the United Nations has been founded. Cannabis use and abuse as an intoxicant was largely unknown in the West at that point, but Islamic leaders have been critical of it since the 13th century.
O You who believe! Intoxicants and gambling, (dedication of) stones and (divination by) arrows are an abomination of Satan’s handiwork. Avoid (such abominations) that you may prosper. (5:90)
Satan’s plan is to sow hatred and enmity amongst you with intoxicants and gambling, and to hamper you from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer. Will you not give up? (5:91)
There are no prohibitions in Islam on alcohol for scientific, industrial or automotive use.
In spite of these restrictions on substance use, tobacco and caffeine are still widely used throughout many Muslim nations.
Read more about this topic: Religion And Drugs
Famous quotes containing the word islam:
“The exact objectives of Islam Inc. are obscure. Needless to say everyone involved has a different angle, and they all intend to cross each other up somewhere along the line.”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)
“Sooner or later we must absorb Islam if our own culture is not to die of anemia.”
—Basil Bunting (1900–1985)
“During the first formative centuries of its existence, Christianity was separated from and indeed antagonistic to the state, with which it only later became involved. From the lifetime of its founder, Islam was the state, and the identity of religion and government is indelibly stamped on the memories and awareness of the faithful from their own sacred writings, history, and experience.”
—Bernard Lewis, U.S. Middle Eastern specialist. Islam and the West, ch. 8, Oxford University Press (1993)