The Hookah is an inanimate object, so alive/dead would be a figurative usage and you can only learn by experience which articles are considered to be 'alive', when functioning correctly. If you said an armchair was alive or dead, people will think you are peculiar, or that English was a second language, which you were still learning. If a room lacked echoes (reverberation), we would say it "sounds dead". (Note: the opposite situation would be "sounds normal", rather than "sounds live").
Cigarettes are described as lit, lighted, burning or out, extinguished, rather than alive/dead. Despite that, the hookah could be regarded as a device/machine and produces something very visible so many would regard it as much alive as a computer or their car.
Your use of language therefore tells the reader whether you are one of these people who regard (some) inanimate objects as having a life of their own.