How Allah Helped Me Leave Smoking Behind

Assalamu alaikum everyone, I want to share something personal - my long struggle to stop smoking - hoping it might help someone going through the same thing. For years I kept trying to quit. I’d manage a short streak, slip, then start over. I tried nicotine gum, cut back to just a couple cigarettes a day, then switched completely to gum. It would work for a week or two and then I’d fall back. Eventually I really began to lose hope in myself. What started to hit me harder was the smell of smoke on my beard during wudu and how uneasy I felt standing in salah. I knew I smelled like smoke and it bothered me spiritually - like I was meeting Allah in a state I wasn’t proud of. Then I went for Umrah. On the morning I left, I smoked what I told myself would be my last cigarette and made the intention that this was the end. I didn’t want to bring cigarettes into the Haramain, so I left them behind. I did bring nicotine gum, but when I arrived in Makkah I didn’t use it. Not because I made some big plan - I just didn’t reach for it. Something inside me shifted, like a switch flipped. I completed Umrah completely cold turkey. To be clear: this wasn’t because of my own willpower. Before I traveled I made a sincere dua asking Allah to help me quit because I knew I couldn’t trust my nafs. I had failed too many times on my own. Allah answered that dua in a way I never expected - He changed what was inside me. The cravings reduced, the dependence loosened, and an addiction that felt impossible suddenly felt manageable. I’m still on this path. I keep making dua, asking Allah to protect me from relapse, because I know how weak I can be without His help. Please make dua for your brother - that Allah keeps me firm, strengthens my resolve, and turns this struggle into purification and nearness to Him. To anyone fighting cigarettes, vaping, shisha, or any addiction: don’t give up. Don’t underestimate the power of dua. Don’t think your weakness is greater than Allah’s mercy. May Allah make it easy for all of us.