The Islamic Hotline Phone _______ was created in Egypt __ the year 2000 with ___ vision of becoming the _____'_ foremost source of information ___ centrist Islamic teachings utilizing ___ mediums of telephone, and ___ internet..
Home Q & A About us FAQ Advertise Contact us   URDU Arabic
 
Q & A --> Fasting --> The Ruling for Injecting in the Day Time during Ramadan

Question : A question was asked regarding whether it was permitted to inject [oneself or another] during [one's fast in] Ramadan.

Fatwa in Brief: If these injections are intended to provide the body with nutrients (mughadhi), then they break one’s fast. If this is not the purpose for the injections [i.e. if they are medically necessary], then one’s fast is not broken.

Shaykh Ibn al-‘Uthaymin, Fatawa al-Siyam, p. 58

Response:

Injections do not break one’s fast, whether this involves nutrients or otherwise. This is because a substance injected into the body is not processed in the usual way [i.e. it does not enter through the mouth and continue into the digestive system].

Commentary:

In May 1919, [Egypt’s Grand Mufti from 1914-20] Shaykh Muhammad Bikhit al-Muti‘i ruled they injections into the vein, muscle or under the skin do not break a Muslim’s fast. His opinion was based on the idea that substances entering the body through injections (or through the skin’s pores) do not reach the abdomen or stomach. Hence, they [these substances and the injections themselves] do not fall in the category of a fast-breaker. And this opinion agrees with those of the majority of scholars.

Al-Muti‘i ruled that a Muslim’s fast is only broken when a substance reaches the abdomen and settles there. That is to say, this substance must remain solely within the abdomen, and that nothing of it [this substance] remains outside the abdomen, nor connected to anything outside the abdomen. [Further, according to al-Muti‘i] This injected substance must reach the abdomen through the usual paths [i.e. it must be eaten]. In contrast, the skin’s pores, and or other such entrances, are clearly not the body’s usual pathways into the abdomen. In modern medicine, injections introduce substances under the skin, whether this [skin] belongs to the upper arm, leg, the backside, or to any other part of the body. Such injections cannot, therefore, nullify one’s fast, as they do not introduce substances into the abdomen through the correct paths. For, even if an injected substance reaches the abdomen, it travels there via the skin, and not via the workings of the digestive system.

And God knows best.

Dr. ‘Ali Mansur