There is a woman who has a disease that causes the breakdown of blood cells. When she fasts, she feels the taste of blood in her throat. This does not happen all the time but it is most of the time. When she makes up missed fasts the same thing happens to her. What should she do when she is fasting? Does having the taste of blood in the throat invalidate the fast or is the fast invalidated if blood enters her stomach because she has no control over that?.
Praise be to Allaah.
The sick person who has a concession allowing him (or her)
not to fast should realize that it is makrooh to fast if it is too difficult
for him, and it is haraam if it will harm him. Allaah has granted him a
concession allowing him not to fast, so it is not permissible for him to
impose hardship upon himself, and it is not permissible for him to cause
harm to himself.
Swallowing blood is one of the things that invalidate the
fast, but if some blood enters a person’s throat involuntarily, without him
intending that to happen, then there is no sin on him and he does not
invalidate his fast thereby, but if he deliberately swallows it then his
fast is invalidated thereby.
Ibn Qudaamah (may Allaah have mercy on him) said:
If his mouth bleeds and he swallows it, then he has broken
the fast, even if it is a small amount, because the mouth comes under same
ruling as external things, and the basic principle is that the fast is
broken by everything that comes from the outside. But saliva is exempted
from that because it is not possible to avoid it. But everything else
remains subject to this principle. If he spits it out from his mouth and
his mouth remains impure or his mouth becomes impure with something from
outside, and he swallows his saliva, if there is any part of the impurity
with it then his fast is broken because of that, otherwise it is not. End
quote.
Al-Mughni (3/36).
The scholars of the Standing Committee said:
If there are ulcers on his gum or the miswak makes them
bleed, it is not permissible to swallow the blood, and he has to spit it
out. But if it enters his throat without him meaning it to, there is no sin
on him. Similarly in the case of vomit, if it goes back into his throat
without him meaning it to, then his fast is still valid. End quote.
Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah
(10/254).
Shaykh Muhammad al-Saalih al-‘Uthaymeen (may Allaah have
mercy on him) was asked: Does a person invalidate his fast if he bleeds when
he has a tooth pulled out?
He replied:
Bleeding when having a tooth pulled out does not affect the
fasting person at all, but he must avoid swallowing the blood, because the
blood is something external and extraordinary, and swallowing it breaks the
fast, unlike swallowing saliva which does not break the fast. The fasting
person who has a tooth pulled out must be careful to avoid letting the blood
reach his stomach, because that breaks the fast. But if the blood enters
his stomach accidentally, then it does not matter, because he did not do that
deliberately. End quote.
Majmoo’ Fataawa al-Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen
(19/question no. 213).
The Shaykh (may Allaah have mercy on him) also said:
If a person has a nosebleed and some of the blood reaches his
throat and some of it comes out, that does not break his fast, because that
which reached his throat did so without him meaning it to, and that which
came out does not affect him. End quote.
Majmoo’ Fataawa al-Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen
(19/question no. 328).
Conclusion:
It is mustahabb for her not to fast if fasting is too
difficult for her, and it is obligatory for her not to fast if fasting will
harm her. If she does not fast, then she has to make up the missed days if
she is able to. If she is not able to make them up, then she has to offer
the fidyah which is feeding one poor person for each day.
We ask Allaah, the Lord of the Worlds, to decree reward for
her for her patience, and to heal her sooner rather than later.
And Allaah knows best.
