Islamic Center of Southern California

The Arguments of Islamic Law Rulings on Recent Medical Issues

Topic Thirty Four

The Ruling on Fast Breaking through Current Medical Applications, Other than Food and Drink

Definition

God, the Most Glorious and Sublime, specifies the things that break the fasting of a Muslim; they are food, drink, and sexual intercourse. God says, "So now approach them and seek what God has ordained for you, and eat and drink until you can distinguish a white thread from a black one at dawn. Then go on with your fasting until nightfall" (Al-Baqarah II: 187). In a divine tradition cited by the Two Masters and quoted by Abu Hurrairah, God says that a Muslim "abstains from his food and drink for Me." In another version, it is "his food ad desire."

There has been a controversy over breakers of fasting other than food, drink, and sexual intercourse. Some scholars tend to be strict, others flexible.

With the emerging need of people for certain controversial applications that have become common due to current medical progress, there is a need for those to be examined at academies of jurisprudence (fiqh).

The Legal Position Chosen by the IOMS and Its Argument

The IOMS holds that what breaks the fasting of a Muslim, other than sexual intercourse, is everything that goes into his body beyond the throat and to which the denotation of "food" or "drink" applies in quantity and quality. Therefore, medical applications that are not included in that category are not fast breakers.

The recommendations of the tenth seminar, held in 1997, include the following:

Third: Fast Breakers

In the Divine Book of God, the Most Glorious and Sublime, and in verified traditions of the Prophet, fast breakers are three: food, drink, and sexual intercourse. Everything that goes beyond the throat and to which the denotation of "food" or "drink" applies in quantity and quality is a fast breaker. Based on that, the participants have agreed that the following items are not fast breakers:

1. Eye drops and ear wash

2. A nitroglycerin tablet, or something similar, that is taken sublingually as a treatment for angina pectoris

3. Any pessary, vaginal suppository, wash, vaginoscope, or the finger of a physician, midwife, or examiner that goes into the vagina

4. Any catheter, urethroscope, barium, or bladder wash solution that enters the male or female urethra, i.e. outer urinary tract

5. Tooth drilling, extraction, or cleaning; and tooth brushing with siwaak (tooth cleanser) or brush, provided that the person engaged in such a thing avoids swallowing anything

6. Hypodermic, muscular, articular, or intravenous injections, with the exception of nutritive intravenous liquid

7. Blood donation and transfusion

8. Oxygen and other anesthetic gases

9. Materials that are absorbed by the skin, such as ointments, liniments, and plasters that carry therapeutic or chemical materials

10. The act of taking a blood sample for a laboratory test

11. A catheter inserted into blood vessels to take x-ray pictures of the heart vessels or those of other organs

12. A laparoscope inserted through the abdomen wall to examine a patient's innards or perform a surgical operation

13. Mouth-rinsing, gargle, and local therapeutic mouth spray, provided that no swallowing takes place

14. A uteroscope or an IUCD inserted into the uterus

15. A specimen (biopsy) taken from the liver or some other organ

The majority of participants ruled that also the following are not fast breakers:

1. Nose drops and spray and asthma spray

2. An enema, suppository, anoscope, or a physician's examining finger that is inserted in the rectum

3. A surgical operation with general anesthesia, if the patient starts his fasting the night before

4. Injections used to treat kidney failure, injected in the peritoneum or artificial kidney

5. A gastroscope, provided that it injects no liquids or other materials Islamic Center of Southern California