Unintentional swallowing of water during Ramadan

01/08/2010| IslamWeb

Question

I visited the dentist during the daytime one day in Ramadan. He started to clean my teeth using a tool that was pumping a great amount of water inside my mouth. I tried as much as I could to avoid swallowing water so as not to invalidate my fasting. At the end of the process, however, I swallowed some water unintentionally. What is the Sharee‘ah ruling on my fasting? Was it broken, and am I responsible to make up for that day?

Fatwa

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.

As long as your swallowing of water was unintentional, your fasting is sound. Allah The Exalted Says (what means): {And there is no blame upon you for that in which you have erred but [only for] what your hearts intended. And ever is Allah Forgiving and Merciful.} [Quran 33: 5]

Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen said, “If the fasting person unwillingly and unintentionally does one of the things that annul the fast, his fast will be valid. If he rinses out his mouth and unintentionally swallows water, his fast will be valid.”

Nevertheless, we advise you to delay such types of treatments, where swallowing something is expected, to a time after the Maghrib prayer if possible.

And Allah knows best.