Is the Qaat (the plant my husband eat and keep it in his mouth like people in Yemen) Halaal or Haraam and why?

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.

Muslim scholars differed regarding the ruling of Qaat whether it is forbidden or not. The basis of this disagreement is the nature of the Qaat itself. Those who consider it harmful and a waste of time, regard it as being forbidden, while those who do not consider it harmful, believe that it is lawful.

We at Islamweb are of the opinion that it is forbidden because Qaat is known to cause much undeniable harm. Sometimes it causes drunkenness or leads to loss of mind so that the afflicted person acts like a drunkard or insane person, though these symptoms do not appear every time it is used or in every person who uses it.

There are some confirmed harms in using Qaat. For instance, it causes known physical harm, wastes money, time and even loss of religion, decreases libido, reduces moisture from the body, produces bad breath, stains the teeth and many other negative effects.

Moreover, generally those who are addicted to Qaat waste their time in useless talk and backbiting people instead of spending time with their families, which leads to their failure to properly care for their children and families.

A great evil of using Qaat is that most of those who are addicted to it fail to heed to the remembrance of Allaah, prayers and other good acts. There are many other medical and social harms to using Qaat.

A universal conference, under the supervision of Islaamic university, Madeenah, K.S.A, was held to fight alcohol, intoxicants, and smoking. A resolution was passed stating that Qaat is also like smoking and other intoxicating material. 

Allaah knows best.