This true story was told to be by a friend of mine. It contains lessons of intelligence and logic, which are two very rare commodities in our world. It was told to me in Urdu and I am posting it in English, for the readers of my blog. So without further ado, let us get to the story:
One day a man (Tariq) was praying in a mosque when all of a sudden a strong stench of burning tobacco hit his smelling sensors. He turned around a saw a man of 40 something, getting ready to pray. Since there were only a few people at that time in the mosque, Tariq was certain that the centre of this nasty odor was this 40 something guy. Since Tariq could do nothing about it he went back to praying and concentrating on what’s more important, bowing down to the Almighty.
Soon after he heard a voice coming from the back row and turned to see that a young guy, in his mid twenty’s was greeting the smoker with the traditional Islamic greeting of Assalaam-o-Alaikum. The smoker replied and the young guy straight away in a blunt tone asked him, Sir, don’t you know that you are not allowed to offer prayers after doing something which is deemed Haraam in Islam? The smoker was a bit shocked and taken aback by this show of complete disrespect. The smoker surprisingly says, boy, watch your tongue, I did not do anything Haraam, to which the guy replies, sir, I don’t think you know but smoking is deemed Haraam in Islam.
The smoker after hearing this from the guy gets infuriated and the arguments starts heating up. The smoker is visibly angry at the guy and says; show me one verse in the Quran which explicitly says that Smoking is Haraam and I swear I will quit this habit forever and for good. Just then the Muezzin announces the call to pray and the argument stops for a few minutes.
After the prayers were offered the guy turns to the smoker and says, sir ‘Smoking is as Haraam in Islam as eating Apples’. Now this blows the lid off the smoker and he raises his voice and says, boy who died and made you in charge of giving nonsense and Un-Islamic Fatwas. Who gave you the authority of declaring things Haraam, which were deemed Halal by Allah? It is because of people like you that Islam is suffering all over the world. I doubt that you are even a Muslim seeing that you think Apples are forbidden. The smoker was previously feeling a bit embarrassed because of all the unwanted attention but now was very happy thinking that he has cornered the guy and now this guy will get off his back for good.
The guy calmly lets the smoker speak, and then says, show me a verse in the Quran which explicitly deems Apples to be Halal and allows Muslims to eat it.
The smoker gets what the guy is getting at and smiles and says, well done boy, I promise I will try to quit this bad habit and also to avoid further embarrassment and the hands of a youth, from now onwards, I will avoid smoking before entering a mosque.
