into danger by your own hands...” (Al Baqarah 2:195) “You may eat, drink, but not waste” (Al-A‘râf 7:31) "Do not kill yourselves for God Almighty is most merciful to you" (An-Nisa 4:29) In practice, at least one recent survey found that observant Muslims tend to avoid smoking. A study of young Muslim Arab-Americans found that Islamic influences were correlated with some diminished smoking. Conversely, an Egyptian study found that knowledge of an anti-smoking fatwa did not reduce smoking. Overall, the prevalence of smoking is increasing in Islamic countries. The prominent scholar Yusuf al Qaradawi argues that smoking is no longer an issue of dispute among Islamic scholars due to the knowledge of health risks. The reported juristic disagreement among Muslim scholars on the ruling concerning smoking, since its appearance and spread, is not usually based on differences between legal proofs, but on the difference in the verification of the cause on which the ruling is based. They all agree that whatever is proved to be harmful to the body and mind is prohibited, yet they differ whether this ruling applies to smoking. Some of them claimed that smoking has some benefits, others assured that it had few disadvantages compared to its benefits, whereas a third group maintained that it had neither benefits nor bad effects. This means that if scholars had been certain about the harmfulness of smoking, then they would undoubtedly have considered it prohibited.[…] Second: Our inclination to consider smoking prohibited does not mean that it is as grave as major sins like adultery, drinking alcohol or theft. In fact, prohibited matters in Islam are relative; some of them are minor prohibitions whereas others are major, and each has its own ruling. The major sins, for example, have no expiation other than sincere repentance. However, the minor sins can be expiated by the Five Prayers, the Friday Prayer, the Fasting of Ramadan, the Night Vigil Prayer in Ramadan, and other acts of worship. They can also be expiated by avoiding the major sins. Fatwas ruling that smoking is impermissible have been issued by sheikhs of all four Sunni schools of fiqh—Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, and Hanbali—as well as by those of the Ibadi sect. By country Egypt In 2000, the Grand Mufti of Egypt, Dr. Nasr Farid Wasil, ruled that smoking was haram (forbidden) in Islam because of its detrimental health effects. The fatwa, which ruled that smoking is