What Islam say about marijuana and its use

RELIGIONS NEWS AGENCY (REDNA)- As the second largest religion in the world with more than 1.8 billion adherents, Islam certainly makes up a large market share of potential religious marijuana users.

While marijuana or hashish are not mentioned directly in the Quran, it’s largely considered to be an outlawed substance. Quran does talk about wine and other intoxicants, which are banned from being used, and most Islamic scholars apply that same reasoning to marijuana and consider it “haram” or forbidden.

Historically, Persian and Iraqi Muslims first began using hashish sometime in the late 800s, and by the 1,000s it was becoming popular. Nonetheless, Islamic prohibition on cannabis began as early as the 13th century, when the Mamluk Sultan Baybars I made its use punishable by death. Today, many Middle Eastern countries that use Islamic law continue to have extremely strict and severe policies restricting the use of marijuana.

The only exception, according to some Islamic scholars, is medicinal marijuana. In 2018, the Fiqh Council of North America issued a statement on medical marijuana, saying that it was permissible within Islam, but with some caveats.

Generally, marijuana-infused medications are allowed, but only if they do not get the user stoned. At the same time, citing the Hanafi and Shafi’i schools of Islamic Law, the Fiqh Council did suggest that some level of intoxication is okay, but only if there is no other alternative and the medicine is proven to work. So Muslims can use marijuana, they just can’t get high.

Source: Grunge