Is the Usage of Medicinal Marijuana Permissible and Can I Pray While Intoxicated?

Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch

Question

I’m confused about the use of medical cannabis for anxiety and depression and how I’m supposed to pray when I’m high. I feel it interferes with the prayer.

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

In short, using marijuana is strictly prohibited (haram), regardless whether it is medicinal or recreational. The Sacred Law seeks to preserve the intellect, thus anything that affects the intellect negatively is forbidden.

As for the prayer, Allah Most High says, “O believers! Do not approach prayer while intoxicated until you are aware of what you say,…” [Quran, 4:43]

The above verse is clear in saying that the prayer is not valid, if one is so intoxicated that they are not able to understand what they are saying (i.e., they are not able to understand the actions and sayings in the prayer). [Qurtubi, al-Jami‘ li-Ahkam al-Qur’an]

For a more detailed answer, see the following links:

When are drugs considered forbidden

[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Yusuf Weltch is a teacher of Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he then completed four years at the Darul Uloom seminary in New York where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences. He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he stayed for three years studying in Dar Al-Mustafa under some of the greatest scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib. In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Qur’an and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Qur’anic exegesis, Islamic history, and a number of texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.