Shall a sick person fast?

[Muslim Woman]

[h=1]Shall a sick person fast?[/h]Fatwa No : 85226



Fatwa Date : Ramadan 24, 1423 / 30-11-2002




Question



If you are sick, is it allowed not to fast? And if you decide to fast is it a sin? And what is supposed to be done by a person who is sick not able to fast?



Answer



Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.

No doubt, diseases are of different types and kinds, some are serious and dangerous while some others are not as significant. So, some illnesses are addressed by the rulings of fasting while some are not regarded. Therefore, the ruling of an illness differs based on its seriousness. We can categorize a sickness that is regarded in fasting into three situations:
A) Sickness that does not affect fasting such as a light cold, slight headache, tooth pain, etc. In this case, fasting is compulsory and neglecting it is forbidden.

B) When a fasting person faces much hardship due to the sickness but it does not cause any harm to him. In this case, the fasting is permissible but it is dislikable to fast.

C) When the fasting causes harm to the fasting person such as the diabetic or a kidney patient, etc. Fasting is forbidden for such a person.


However, Muslim scholars differ concerning the validity of the fasting of a person whose situations is similar to the condition mentioned in the third category. Some scholars are of the opinion that if such a person fasts he fulfills his obligation, while others believe that his fasting is not valid because he refused the concession granted by Allah. This is the opinion of Ibn Hazam .



Finally, the chronically ill person should break fasting, and fasting is forbidden for him if it could seriously harm him. We ask Allah to grant cure for Muslim patients.


As for the issue of making up the missed days, if the sickness of a person is temporary and he hopes for a cure, he should makeup the missed days after being cured. Allah Says (interpretation of meaning): {… but if any of you is ill or on a journey, the same number (should be made up) from other days …} [2: 184].


The chronically ill person who has no hope for a cure is not subject to make up the missed days. Instead, he should pay expiation for every day he missed fasting. The expiation is feeding a poor person approximately 750 grams of rice or wheat or something else.


Allah knows best.


http://www.islamweb.net/emainpage/index.php?page=showfatwa&Option=FatwaId&Id=85226

 

[Muslim Woman]

Fatwa No : 111637



Should liver patients who take medicine every 12 hours fast or not?




Fatwa Date : Sha'baan 17, 1430 / 10-8-2009


Question


I am a doctor, and I follow up on patients with liver transplantations. Such patients become physically capable of fasting six months after the operation.

However, the problem is that they must take immunosuppressive capsules every 12 hours orally, which means that they will break the fast despite their physical ability.

The patients want to fast, but lengthening the period between capsules (more than 12 hrs) may have adverse effects. Please advise.



Answer





All perfect praise be to Allaah, the Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, , is His Slave and Messenger.



It is permissible for such a patient to break his fast and take the medicine if the next time when he must take the medicine is before the end of the fasting period, provided that it is certain or it is most likely that lengthening the period will aggravate the illness, delay recovery or cause a new illness.

Determining the consequences of this is to be made only by reliable and capable physicians.

However, if delaying the medicine for two or three hours will not affect the fasting patient, then it is impermissible for him to break the fast.

Allaah Knows best.

http://www.islamweb.net/emainpage/index.php?page=showfatwa&Option=FatwaId&Id=111637