Does the Islamic legal maxim "What is forbidden to do is forbidden to watch" apply to watching smokers and those who openly commit sins on television?
The saying or rule "Everything whose فعل (act/doing) is forbidden, looking at it is also forbidden" has been mentioned by many scholars with similar wordings. Its essence is that whatever is forbidden to do is forbidden to look at, what is disliked is disliked, and what is permissible is permissible.
Scholars have explicitly stated the prohibition of watching forbidden things, because it constitutes aiding in them and an endorsement of them.
Since smoking is forbidden, watching it is likewise forbidden, whether directly or via television, because it is akin to witnessing a reprehensible act without changing it. It is as if it is an endorsement, acceptance, and encouragement of it.
Summary from Ftawy's records · added here
Reviewed by El Fatwa's sharia committee.
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