We spoke last week about many things that some scholars state to invalidate fasting when taken in Ramadan days, showing that this cannot be true. We looked at what past scholars understood by the term jawf, showing that it cannot be a criterion to judge what renders fasting invalid. We made it clear that whatever goes inside the body through the ear, nose, anus, vagina or penis does not invalidate fasting, whether taken as medication, as in the case of inhalers, drops and dialytic solution, or for medical examination and diagnosis. We also pointed out that swallowing a little amount of water when we rinse our mouths does not invalidate fasting, which indicates that a little amount is always overlooked.
Similarly, many scholars do not object to tasting food as it is being cooked or to gum chewing.
This view is based on statements by some of the Prophet’s companions and their successors. Needless to say, gum chewing and food tasting will inevitably allow a very small amount to reach the stomach, but this is again overlooked.
Books of Fiqh also speak about kohl, i.e. surma, or the black colouring of the edges of the eye, and that it may get through to the throat. Some contend that it invalidates fasting if swallowed in a certain way. But this is wrong, considering the Hadith in which Aishah, the Prophet’s wife, states: “God’s messenger applied kohl when he was fasting.” (Related by Ibn Majah). Even if we allow that kohl may find its way to the stomach, what reaches it, if any, is far less than what reaches it as a result of rinsing one’s mouth, food tasting or gum chewing.
People sometimes speak about ‘feeling the taste of kohl in one’s throat,’ but this is totally meaningless in medical terms. The throat has nothing to do with taste. The furthest gustatory papilla with the tasting function is found at the end of the tongue. As it is well known, the tongue is in the mouth, and what it feels does not invalidate fasting. When we rinse our mouths, the water covers the entire tongue.
The normal case is that whatever falls into the mouth as a result of drilling a tooth or extracting a molar will not be swallowed. The dentist puts in his patient’s mouth a special tool to suck all that happens to be in it, including the patient’s saliva. If any part of that forces its way through and gets swallowed, the fast remains valid, because the patient has not swallowed it intentionally. God says in the Qur’an: “You will incur no sin if you make a mistake; rather, by what your hearts intend.” (33: 5)
Nor is there any justification for considering the insertion of a gastroscope as a cause invalidating fasting. No human being would ever think that the patient eats the gastroscope. It is a tool which cannot be described as food or drink in human language.
Even the slippery stuff applied to the gastroscope to ease its pushing through comes out with it when it is pulled out. But if we suppose that some of it is retained in the stomach, it will not have been intentionally swallowed by the patient who is fasting. Moreover, the entire process of inserting the gastroscope and taking it out does not take more than a few minutes.
There is no question to consider in cases of open head injury or open abdominal injury. Anyone with such an injury is close to death. To speak about fasting in such a case is frivolous. Moreover, what may get into the skull or brain cavity cannot be considered a form of eating or drinking. The same applies to intravenous drip given as a form of nourishment. Such drips are given normally to a seriously ill person, who is likely not to be fasting in the first place. Hence, the matter does not merit much discussion.
As for other medical injections, whether intramuscular, intravenous or under the skin, given to administer treatment or to transfuse blood, no such injection qualifies as food or drink. They enter the body in a very unnatural and unfamiliar way. Contemporary scholars are unanimous that such injections do not invalidate fasting.
Oxygen and anesthetic gases are inhaled into the body. They are neither eaten nor taken as a drink. Hence, they have no effect on fasting. Even operations done under general anesthesia, performed on a patient who started fasting at night, cannot justifiably be said to invalidate fasting on the basis of loss of consciousness.
Some medication enter the body by absorption through the skin, such as ointments, crèmes, or a medicated emplastrum such as that given in cases of angina. Again, there is no question here of taking food or drink. Scholars are unanimous that such medication has no effect on the validity of fasting.
Similar to injections is the case of patients with kidney failure who undergo dialysis treatment to remove body poisons. This involves injecting the dialytic solution in the peritone through an opening made in the abdomen, and extracting it later. Alternatively, blood is sucked into the dialysis machine, which is sometimes called ‘artificial kidney’, where it is purified before being returned into the patient’s vein. Neither method appears to have any bearing on the validity of the patient’s fasting.
Nor is there any problem with taking a blood sample for laboratory tests, or with donating blood. All this comes under phlebotomy or blood-letting. Some claimants to scholarly knowledge in our modern times try to classify these practices under cupping, but they are fundamentally different. Besides, cupping is almost a dead or dying practice. Most scholars agree that cupping does not invalidate fasting. Their view is based on the Hadith related by Al-Bukhari quoting Abdullah ibn Abbas who says: “The prophet had cupping administered to him when he was in the state of consecration, or ihraam, and when he was fasting.” It appears to me that the Prophet spoke against cupping when one is fasting in order to preserve the fasting person’s energy. Abu Dawood relates on the authority of Abd Al-Rahman ibn Abi Laila: “One of the Prophet’s companions said to me that the Prophet warned his followers against cupping (when fasting) and against continuing fasting for more than one day without a break because he wanted to spare them.” A Hadith related by Al-Daraqutni quotes Abu Saeed Al-Khudri as saying: “God’s messenger has allowed cupping when one is fasting.” Al-Daraqutni also relates that the Prophet had cupping administered to him sometime after he had said: “Both the one who administers cupping and the one who has it done to him invalidate their fast.”
Likewise, it is perfectly appropriate during the day of fasting to have a catheter inserted in a patient’s artery to obtain an image of the inside of blood vessels close to the heart or to other organs. Likewise it is perfectly appropriate to insert an entroscope or a colonoscope through the abdomen to examine a patient’s intestines or to operate on such organs. Nothing of this may be described as eating or drinking, and nothing goes through any normal inlet opening.
Arab News Islam 18 November 2002