Is using products that are harmful to health regarded as committing suicide? What is the religious decree on using harmful products deliberately?

For instance, smoking is harmful to the body; it is even close to haram. Similarly, we use many harmful products like fried food, mobile phones and numerous things though we know that they are harmful. Committing suicide is haram and it leads a person to Hell; a person who commits suicide harms his life directly. Similarly, when we use harmful things deliberately, are we regarded to have harmed our lives and is it regarded the same as committing suicide?

Dear Brother / Sister,

A person’s using the things that are harmful to his health can be haram or makruh; it depends. Committing suicide is regarded as one of the biggest sins in our religion. For, when a person commits suicide, he directly harms his life. However, we cannot regard the other things that are harmful to our health like committing suicide. 

For instance, a person who smokes does so because he takes pleasure from it; he does not smoke in order to kill himself. Since it harms his health, it is regarded as haram or makruh by our religion based on the state of the smoker.

We cannot call the food items and other products that are not harmful directly haram. However, if something that is halal will harm a person’s health and be vitally dangerous and if it is definitely forbidden by a doctor, it is no longer permissible for that person to eat it.

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