Solution bags and fasting

8-5-2016 | IslamWeb

Question:

Does hanging solution bags for the patient after an appendectomy during the daytime in Ramadan invalidate fasting, whether these solutions contain medicine or nourishing substances?

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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, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and messenger.

Solutions given to the patient through a vein injection are either nourishing like glucose or free of nourishment like medicine. Nourishing fluids invalidate the fast because they are treated like food, drink, and whatever has their effects. In contrast, medicine solutions do not invalidate the fast because they are not food or drink, nor do they have their effect.

We would like to draw the attention of the questioner to the ruling that if a sick person is not able to fast or if his fast might worsen his condition or delay his recovery, then he may break his fast. Allaah, the Exalted, says (what means): {…and whoever is ill or on a journey – then an equal number of other days...} [Quran 2: 185] After recovery, the sick person is required to make up for the days of fasting that he has missed. We ask Allaah to cure all the sick among the Muslims.

Allaah Knows best.