Seadet-i Ebediyye - Endless Bliss Sixth Fascicle

as follows as he deals with things that are harâm to consume:
“There are three groups of things that are harmful to eat or drink:
The harm of the ones in the first group is known by everybody.
They are deadly things. All kinds of poison, glass powder,
compounds of iron and quicksilver, lime, and the like are a few
examples. It is harâm to eat or drink them. The second group are
not deadly, although it is known that they are harmful. Examples of
them are soil, mud, clay, and the like. It is makrûh to eat or drink
too much of these things, and mubâh to eat or drink harmless
amounts of them. The third group are harmful to physically weak
people and harmless to people in robust health. Fish, milk, [eggs,
pressed meat called ‘pastirma’, pickles or chutneys, canned meat,]
honey, olive oil, peppers are harmful to some people. These things
are harâm or makrûh only for people to whom they will be harmful.
They are mubâh for people to whom they will not be harmful.”
Those who hold that tobacco is harmful acknowledge that they can
consider it in the third group at the most. There is not a single
scientist to state that it is a poison that will kill anyone who smokes
it. For, everyone knows that it is not a poison with that strength.
Nor has anyone been heard to say that to smoke one or two
cigarettes a day will mean to poison oneself on account of the
poisonous substance called nicotine that tobacco contains. For, that
assertion would be like saying that to breathe will mean to poison
oneself on account of the gas called carbon dioxide that air
contains. One of the constituents of bitter almonds (prunus
amygdalus) is amygdalin glicosidine, which contains cyanic acid,
which in turn many times more poisonous than nicotine. No one
says that bitter almonds are poisonous or that it is harâm or makrûh
on account of this poison that they contain. In a conference held by
the teaching staff of the faculty of dentistry in Istanbul, one of the
speeches delivered contained the statement that “the nicotine
formed in the mouth by a couple of cigarettes smoked daily has had
a protective effect on the tooth gums, whereas an excess of this limit
has proven harmful.” Too much of any food or drink will be
harmful. By the same token, it is doubtless that smoking too much
will be harmful. However, it would be quite contrary to science and
wisdom for people who hear this reasoning to suppose that smoking
is harmful and causes cancer, that even one or two cigarettes a day
will give harm, and that therefore it is harâm or makrûh.
Sayyid Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Ismâ’îl Tahtawî
‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’, (d. 1231 [1815 A.D.],) a scholar of Fiqh
in the Hanafî Madhhab, states as follows in his annotation to the
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