Salam, my friend is thinking of getting a gastric balloon to regain her health and lose weight, but she wants to know if she can fast with the balloon in her stomach since she needs to keep it for almost 12 months, she tried excercise diets and many more but as time passes she concerns that she might not be able to lose it all to becone healthy. I live in Türkiye and she lives in Netherlands, when we look for fatwa in Turkish all we can find is about a gastric surgery. Health is very important in our deen and also Ramadan and fasting are the carriers of essential worships and blessings. Can she get the balloon and fast during Ramadan?

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

The presence of the gastric balloon in the stomach does not prevent the validity of fasting, just as the presence of food in the stomach of the person who had suhoor (pre-dawn meal) does not affect the validity of fasting. So there is no effect of the balloon on the validity of fasting, as it appears to us.

Allah knows best.