Daily Times

In 1881, James Bonsack invented the first cigarette, which became most popular when the horrors of the Great War led to a great rise in smoking and by 1919, cigarette smoking was the most popular form.

Now in this 21st century, all over the world mostly everyone including kids use to smoke. Bhutan is the only country in the world that completely bans the sale and production of tobacco and tobacco products. Under the law, any individual found selling tobacco can face imprisonment.

In my article, I will only talk about Pakistan because first, we should show the right path to our country and then to other countries. The current population of Pakistan is 204,356,009 people. By a research, it has been observed that 46 percent of men and, 5.7 percent of women smoke tobacco and over 125,000 children consume tobacco daily in Pakistan, despite knowing that, it’s very harmful to their health. A single cigarette contains over 4300 chemicals, 69 out of which are known to cause cancer. This can lead to Stoke, Asthma, Lung cancer, COPD, Heart disease, and many other deadly diseases. Some people smoke to relieve their tension, and some do for enjoyment. It’s natural when kids see their elders smoking; they supposed it’s a positive attitude.

That’s why they also want to continue this bad habit. Also by watching celebrities smoking in TV shows, our new generation develops a mindset that by smoking they will also look cool.

Our world has become very advanced; through net everyone is aware that cigarettes are very harmful to their health. People still smoke because they do not realise that health is a blessing and a gift for us from Allah. We are wasting it by our own hands through cigarettes if we have everything in the world but if we do not have our health, all these things are of no use because nothing is more than health. Most people do not know about their priorities when they are tensed, because of any problem, they smoke, while it does not solve their problem. Nicotine is a mood changing drug. It seems to smoulder feelings of frustration, anger and anxiety when it is inhaled. Just for this time being, people smoke for relaxation and they ignore the after effects of cigarette. Why do people forget the holy Quran, the relaxation which they get from the recitation of the holy Quran? They cannot get it from anything, even cigarettes. The holy Quran is the Book of Allah and by its recitation, Allah blesses us. By the blessings of Allah, our problems can also be solved. As far we talk about enjoyment, so yeah, it is very important because nowadays everyone have a very busy schedule, in which it is very important to have fun to calm down our mind, but cigarette is not the only thing for enjoyment, there are many other things, for example we can hang out with friends, we can hear songs, we can play games, we can do gardening, and there are many other things to do.

Our new generation, who have a mindset that by smoking they will look cool, it is their biggest misunderstanding because those who copy others to become cool they also lose their identity because they are trying to become something which they are not. They become fake and they have no real personality. Becoming cool means to impress everyone, so to really impress everyone, do something like Arfa Karim, Haroon Tariq, Muhammad Hamza Shahid, and there are many such examples, these are those children from whom whole world is impressed. The whole world remembers them in good words, so why don’t people use their minds? At first, people enjoy a lot from smoking. They do not take such articles seriously, but later these people regret because when people get addicted to cigarette, it is not easy for them to leave cigarettes, like it is better if the disease is prevented at the beginning or otherwise it becomes difficult to treat disease later.

Cigarettes are slow poison. Those who get addicted to smoking do not get worried because nothing is impossible, the readers will be thinking it is very easy to write and difficult to do, but difficult by itself is a seed of failure and our mind works like a tree. Whatever we use to think in the form of branches, our mind gives us its reasons. If we think negatively, our mind will give us negative points. We should always think positively and should end this word “difficult” forever from our lives. People should understand this on time, because if the time passes, nothing will be left except for regret. It’s my request to all those who smoke, do not be an enemy of your life.

The writer is a student at Beaconhouse School System. She can be reached at azharilyas123@hotmail.com