The historic fatwa against tobacco by Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi

By: Sayyid Ali Shahbaz
May 14 is a red letter day in the history of the Iranian people’s struggles against domestic despotism and foreign hegemony. It was on this day that a famous fatwa or religious edict was issued by the marja’ or senior-most Source of Emulation of the times, Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi, banning consumption of tobacco, so as to foil the British plot to ruin Iranian economy. Stay with us for a special feature in this regard.
During the third trip to Europe of the inefficient Qajarid king of Iran, Nasereddin Shah, a British official by the name of Talbot concluded a one-sided agreement, forcing Iran to grant monopoly of the cultivation, production, sale and export of tobacco in Iran, through a British company named Regie. For a paltry sum of British pounds, the inefficient Iranian government had virtually sold the nation’s resources to the foreigners.
The people of Iran, however, were greatly angered by such a move, and inspired by the religious leaders, strongly campaigned for cancellation of the grant. Soon news of the demonstrations in Iran and other cities reached Iraq, where in the holy city of Samarra Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi was based.
The Ayatollah promptly sent a telegram to the Iranian king warning him of the ruin he was bringing upon the Iranian economy and harming national sovereignty. When Nasereddin Shah failed to heed the warnings, Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi had no other choice but issue a Fatwa prohibiting use of tobacco, and saying that any use of tobacco from now onwards would be considered war against the Lord of the Age, Imam Mahdi (AS), the 12th and Last Successor of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Immediately, the Muslim people of Iran obeyed the edict, and throughout the country refrained from buying, selling and using tobacco.
The ban even spread to the royal palace, where the queen ordered the breaking of all tobacco pipes and the traditional huqqas. When Nasereddin Shah asked her, on whose orders she had done such things, she promptly replied: On the orders of the person who has legalized husband-and-wife relations between me and you. Nasereddin Shah had no choice but to cancel the tobacco concession.
This was a timely move to save Iranian economy, since the tobacco concession had granted Regie Company 50 years for full exploitation of the resources of Iranians, of whom 20 percent were engaged in cultivation and sale of tobacco, whose profits went into the pockets of the British colonialists.
Prior to the Fatwa of Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi, the ulema in various cities of Iran had firmly opposed the tobacco concession. For example, in Tabriz, Ayatollah Mirza Jawad Tabrizi telegraphed the Shah, saying: We the people of Azarbaijan do not sell ourselves to foreigners and will fight till the last moment of our life.
In Khorasan, the people were led by Sheikh Mohammad Taqi Bojnourdi, Seyyed Habib Mojtahed Shahidi and Mirza Ahmad Razavi, who gathered in the holy shrine of the Prophet’s 8th Infallible Heir in Mashhad, Imam Reza (AS), and staged a sit-in protest in the famous Gowharshad Mosque. In Tehran, the people were led by Sheikh Fazlollah Noori, and Ayatollah Mirza Mohammad Hassan Ashtiani – the student of Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi.
In Shiraz, it was Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Akbar Fal- Asiri, who mobilized the people against domestic despotic and foreign hegemony. Agents of the regime, frightened by the uprising, opened fire on the people and martyred some of them. Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi, on hearing of the tragic incidents in Shiraz, sent a telegram to the Shah in Tehran from Samarra, denouncing the killing of people.
Finally, when the fatwa was issued by Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi, at first the agents of the regime, tried to prevent its circulation amongst the people, but failed to prevent it.
As the Fatwa was circulated in Iranian towns and cities, all tobacco merchants shut down their shops and all people stopped smoking. Even the Jews and Christians cooperated with Muslims and refrained from using tobacco. And when the ban spread to the royal palace and harem of the king, Nasereddin Shah had thus, no other choice, but to heed the Fatwa and cancel the tobacco concession to Regie Company.
These events are known in Iranian history as the Tobacco Movement, and showed the influence of the ulema on the daily life of the people, as well as the power of the people against domestic despotism and foreign hegemony. This movement and the historic Fatwa by Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi, was the beginning of a serious campaign against dictatorship in Iran that led to the Constitutional Revolution of the next few decades. It put a big question mark on the legitimacy of the monarchic system and person of the king who had no legal or spiritual authority to rule the Iranian people.
The unsparing support of the Iranian people for the Fatwa of the Marja’ of the time, proved that Islam and the ulema exercise a deep-rooted influence on the hearts of the Muslim people of Iran. The Tobacco Uprising could thus be considered as the first organized Islamic awakening of the Iranian people for materializing of their birthrights and determination to fight domestic despotism and foreign hegemony.