Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume I — Page 201
! ! 201 made me free from becoming addicted to anything. When I was a child , I was treated wit h opium for six months due to an illness, but even then , I was not addicted to it. My respected mother says even on the day s it [the dose] was missed , I did not suffer. I drink tea , but am not addicted to it, although I do avoid it at times to forestall any weakness. Thus, wherever people are found to smoke tobacco, those who smoke cigarettes or use hookah , will join them due to their cravings. Their hunger for hookah lures them in, regardless of whether th e people are pious or evil. One anecdote relates the story of a Hindu who was addicted to smoking hookah. Once he was trav eling and felt a craving for it. H e came across a janitor’s hookah and began to smoke i t, even though ordinarily a Hindu does not even allow a low - caste janitor to approach him , much less smoke his hookah. When he saw the janitor approaching , he worried that the janitor might now boast of this [incident] , so he called out to him and asked him not to mention it to anyone. After smoking the hookah , he then quietly left. Therefore, one should avoid all sorts of bad habits so that t he y remain free of enslavement. I n addition to being the root of all immoralities and making one cowardly and enslaved to others, smoking hookah causes many diseases. H ookah is harmful to the nerves, causes asthma, seizures , and many other diseases. Therefore, my second advice is to refrain from smoking tobacco , for in addition to causing a number of moral weaknesses, it is detrimental to one’s health. H ookah should not be found at the Ahmadiyya Chowk [crossroads] or in our markets. Our office bearers should keep a strict watch over this matter. I am disappointed that hookah is smoked at our shops and in our markets. There is an anecdote from the time of the Promised Messiah as , in which he was once informed of a person who sat in the guesthouse and constantly smoke d hookah. The Promised Messiah as e xpelled him immediately. There can be no comparison between when the Promised Messiah as evict ed a hookah smoker from the guesthouse and nowadays , when hookah is smoked freely in our markets and at the crossroads. I f the office - bearers had lapsed, then it was the duty