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Islam and Spiritualism ( 7 Apr 2023, NewAgeIslam.Com)

Thirty Lessons of Ramadan: The Sixteenth Lesson on the Updated Guidelines for the Treatment in the State of Fasting – Part 16

By Mufti Abdul Malik Misbahi, New Age Islam

Translated into English by Ghulam Ghaus Siddiqi, New Age Islam

7 April 2023

Question: If an endoscope is inserted into the stomach, liver, or intestine while someone is fasting, will the fast be broken?

Answer: This procedure is called "endoscopy" in medical terms. Endoscopes come in two different varieties: single-use endoscopes, sometimes called disposable endoscopes, and reusable endoscopes. The single-use endoscope contains a pre-applied liquid or jelly coating to make it sticky. The doctors typically apply some sort of jelly to the reusable endoscopes to make them more elastic.

The passage of the tube [i.e. entrance] is anaesthetized before being inserted for internal examination. The tube is inserted into the stomach through the mouth. To numb the organs, a liquid, such as xylocaine, is inserted into this tube; the tube and liquid pass down the throat together. This tube is connected to a TV-like device, with a light attached to the tube. Since the light inside the stomach is illuminated, the interior part of the stomach is completely visible on the screen of the machine. If there is any opacity, the liquid is also injected through the same tube, which removes the opacity of the stomach, making the image inside clearly visible on the screen. This information leads to the conclusion that endoscopy will break the fast.

It is stated in Bahar-e-Shariat:

If anything is entered into the anus (the back private area), but its other end is outside of the anus, the fast won't break; otherwise, it would break, and if the object is wet and its moisture penetrates within, the fast will surely be declared broken. Similarly, if someone tied a piece of meat to a string, swallowed it, but left the other end of the string outside, quickly pulled it out, and prevented it from breaking up (i.e., being digested), the fast would not be broken in this case. However, if the other end of the string also went in, or if some of the meat was still inside, the fast would be broken. [Alamgiri, vol.5, p.986, cited in Bahar-e-Shariat]

Question: Is it permissible or not to undergo an RCT, tooth extraction, or teeth correction while fasting? Will it be detestable (Makrooh) or will it make fasting invalid?

Answer: If at all possible, the tooth patient should have any necessary procedures—such as an RCT (Root Canal Treatment) or teeth extraction or fixation—done at night. He must avoid receiving such care during the holy month of Ramadan since his fast would undoubtedly be invalidated if even a small amount of blood or medicine enters the throat. The fast won't be invalidated if he takes care to prevent anything from going down his throat, but it will still be detestable (Makrooh) to do so because there is a fear of something going down the throat in addition to tasting the medicine. (Fatawa Razawiyyah)

Question: Does wearing an oxygen mask while fasting invalidate a fast or not?

Answer: Wearing an oxygen mask while fasting will render the fast invalid since this process involves the intentional ingestion of artificial oxygen from the outside—which is possible for a person to escape—into the stomach of the fasting individual.

It is stated in Fatawa Razawiyya:

Now, if we examine the objects that enter the stomach of a fasting person from the outside, we will discover several factors:

(1) Some of them, like air, are ones that a person on a fast cannot completely avoid.

(2) There are some factors that every person is bound to deal with occasionally, and that they cannot be avoided completely, such as the entry of dust and smoke, which need a person to be near them and which he cannot completely avoid to the extent of his ability. Sometimes a man has no choice but to speak, and even if he does not speak, how can he survive without breathing? The air contains these things and is fully and actively moving around with them in the entire atmosphere, so even if a man keeps his mouth shut, these can still enter through the nasal channel.

(3) There are some factors that one can always avoid, even though rare circumstances require some people to deal with them, such as foods and liquids, as well as purposely incorporating smoke and dust in them. These actions are one's own and are not beyond a person's skill or power.

Fasting would be impossible, and the requirement to fast would turn out to be an obligation of an impossible undertaking, therefore the wise and gracious Holy Shari'ah has excluded the first category of factors [such as air] from the list of things that invalidate fasting. Similarly, the second type [i.e. the entry of smoke and dust] is not considered an absolute invalidator of fasting by the Holy Shari'ah because, if accepted, it would be subject to either of two conditions. The first condition would be that the command to render the fast invalid would have to be accepted for all time, in which case, it would be necessary to make something obligatory that a person does not have the power to do. The second condition would be that, even if it is said to be an invalidator of fasting, and despite that fasting is regarded valid in the event of necessity, then in such a case, something would need to exist that negated reality or required the combination of essence and anti-essence, which is invalid. The holy Shari'ah is not at all expected to define something as a fast-invalidator and abolish the rule of its fast-invalidation due to necessity in some areas, as we already discussed, because necessity is ineffective at altering realities. Check out the Fiqh books, for example:

First, the sick individual [who was in the state of fasting] was on the verge of death and was therefore forced to take medication. Nonetheless, the order declaring the fast invalid would not be revoked, indicating how pressing the need was that allowed him to break the fast.

Second, the dictator is holding a sword to the head of a person [who is fasting] and threatening to kill him if he does not break his fast by eating. In this absolute necessity, the Shari'ah permits him to eat but there is no rule rendering his fast valid, [even after he eats]

Third, who is more in need than someone who is starving to death, for whom it is not sinful to consume any food, be it forbidden or dead things, and for whom it is required that he consume as much food as is required for him to save his life? Yet, because the situation was one of great necessity, this does not imply that the person's fast will not be broken [if this occurred while the person was fasting].

Fourth, sleep is almost similar to death. What should be avoided in this situation? What can the sleeper do to prevent doing something? In this state, anything could happen. The same rule that renders the fast invalid also applies if something enters the throat of a fasting person while sleeping.

Therefore, according to this servant of Fiqh, it is self-evident that Shari'ah never makes a distinction between necessity and non-necessity by considering something as an invalidator of fasting. Necessity is only taken into account to the extent that breaking the fast is permitted and occasionally required under extreme necessity, but it is impossible for a Muftir [fast-breaking thing or act] to cease being a Muftir. This fundamental consensus of intellect, transmission, and legal principle founded on the Quranic verse "Allah does not burden a soul beyond that it can bear" have made it compulsory that the second type must also be excluded from the Muftiraat (acts or things that break a fast), and only the third type is subject to the Muftir rule. [Fatawa Razawiyya, vol.4, p.590]

(This entire discussion is derived from the jurisprudential seminar held at Jamia Ashrafiya Mubarakpur, Azamgadh, which was published in the monthly Ashrafiya Mubarakpur in January 2016.)

(Continued)

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Mufti Abdul Malik Misbahi is the author of multiple books. He has also lectured and held positions such as Mufti, Shaykhul Hadith, president, founder, and director at a number of institutions, including Darul Uloom Ghousia in Hubli, Karnataka, and Darul Uoom Solemaniya Rahmaniya in Bikaner Darul Uloom Reza-e-Mustafa, Bihar, Madrasa Shah Khalid, Vanwa Libo Muslim League, Fiji (near Australia), Madina Educational Society, Rajasthan. He currently holds the positions of Mufti in the Sunni Darul Ifta in the Madina Masjid, General Secretary of the Raza Foundation, Director of the Darain Academy, Founder of the Afkar-e- Raza Institution, and Chief Editor of the Do-Maahi Raza-e-Madina (Urdu, Hindi) in Azadnagar, Jamshedpur, Jharkhand.