When Sickness Breaks Your Fast: Islamic Rules Explained

Adam, could you move this back a little bit just so I can see the.

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Alhamdulillah. Continuing in the book of fasting in the chapter regarding the pillars of fasting. We mentioned that fasting has how many pillars? Two. The first pillar intention. Second pillar, refraining from anything that will compromise a person's fast. And how many things will break a person's fast? Five or six, depending on how you count them. So, we mentioned the first two, eating or drinking anything purposely. We did about three days about eating and drinking purposely. Remember food and drink go in the Arabic language in any language food and drink they go down the throat. So really that is the chief path of food and drink. We mentioned that if a person were to take something that supplements food and drink, not a part or a portion of food and drink like a vitamin shot or what do you call it insulin or anything that. This will not break a person's fast. It has to take the place of food and drink. Meaning if you didn't eat or drink anything and you only had this, it would it would keep you alive, right? an IV for hydration, a tube that you get fed through straight into the stomach. However, anything else will not break a person's fast. So for instance a u suppository a suppository suppository goes in the the rectum right it's usually medicine or something of that sort this will not break a person's fast why because it's not food or drink and suppositories yes were around in the prophet's time sai wasallam and yes they did administer medicine through the rectum via the rectum. the point is is that these are the parameters of food and drink. But something that does not take the place of food and drink entirely. This will not break a person's fast. So any injections will not take a person's fast again unless it takes the place of food and drink. oftent times you know there are a lot of questions that come up. These are general guidelines. At the end of the day if a person has a particular question, a particular issue, right? Then they are to take it to a person of knowledge and ask. The third is as the author mentions here. That is that a person induces himself to vomit. A person induces himself to vomit. What does that mean? Well, has the prophet sallall.aii wasallam ever done that? Yes, he has induced himself to vomit on multiple occasions. The companions as well. And as a matter of fact, inducing oneself to vomit is one of the prophetic remedies for certain ailments. So if a person were to, you know, stick his fingers into his gag reflex to to vomit or do anything to make himself vomit, this will break a person's fast. However, if it comes on on its own and a person throws up or vomits without the person inducing it himself, it will not break his fast. A person may then ask the question, what's the difference? Why is there a difference between a person inducing himself to vomit and vomit overwhelming a person until they do? What's the difference? Why does this break the fast and this does not? Well, first of all, because the prophet sallall.aii wasallam made a distinction. The evidence for this, as the author states,.

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Was.

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Lacking cathedral.

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The author says and inducing oneself to vomit. However, if a person is overcome by the urge to vomit and does so without him making himself vomit, inducing himself to vomit, then he does not have to make up that day and fast and he does not have to pay a kaf. In other words, his fast is true and he is to continue fasting unless he needs to break his fast for illness or what have you. Then he cites the evidence for this. It's an evidence which is collected by and Abu D and Maja in their within an an authentic chain of narration on the authority of Abi who narrates that the prophet Sam said whomever is overcome by the urge to vomit and then does so then there is no make upon him. They don't have to make that day up. And whoever induces himself to vomit, then he is to make that day up. Why would he make the day up? Because the fast is invalid. Because it breaks a person's fast. You know, sometimes people will wonder why would you make yourself vomit? But you know, this is actually a common thing. , most people actually have this. Say you have something bad for sahul. You grabbed something and it was a little bit dubious, but you went ahead and and and ate it or drank it and then you started feeling sick, right? Well, the first recourse in the prophet's medicine sai was to empty the body of whatever is ailing the person. So that is usually by three methods, three things. Emptying the stomach, emptying the bowels and then drinking a lot of water. This is how the prophet sallallah.aii alaihi wasallam remedied that in his sunnah. So a person may make himself vomit. This doesn't break a person's woo. There's a narration in on the authority of in which he narrates that the prophet sallall.aii Wasam made himself vomit and then he made wudoo. Notice notice the narration. He made himself vomit and then he made wudoo. He didn't say make woo after vomiting. He didn't instruct that. This is something that he did. So the most that could be taken from this narration is that it is preferred that a person make wudoo after vomiting but it does not invalidate a person's wudoo doesn't affect a person's woo vomiting if it is self-induced will break a person's fast if it is not then it will not break a person's fast let's say a person has a a an upset stomach you Oh, they have an upset stomach. They have a stomach ache. Is this a valid reason to break your fast? And we talked about this in depth. So, let's go ahead and try. Everybody, a lot of people are having this little thing in the back of their mind say, "No, of course not. This is Ramadan. Push through it. Power through it." Right? What is the point of laying around in agony? What does this achieve exactly? Right? Or a person gets a headache, a very bad headache. They need to take medicine. And so because it's Ramadan, they just lay around in agony for hours waiting for the clock to roll over on on me. What have we achieved by doing this exercise? absolutely nothing. These of course are valid reasons to break a person's fast and the companions broke their fast for way less than this. This kind of extremism oftent times makes us take on burden that Allah didn't put on us. Right? Allah said in the verses of fasting where did he what did he anchor the rulings of fasting in? Remember we have a number six or seven verses about the purpose of fasting and the legislation of fasting and so forth. He anchored all of these rulings on fasting in which principle Allah desires ease for you and he does not desire difficulty. Therefore, if you are experiencing abnormal difficulty, notice the word here, abnormal, unusual difficulty. If we had a thousand people, one person would have this level of difficulty. the rest would have discomfort. Then fasting is not for you on that day, right? And some of the companions tried to power through things and the prophet sallall.aii wasallam deterred them from that and discouraged that. One time the companions were with the prophet sallallah.aii alaihi wasallam traveling and they were in the caravan and suddenly he noticed a group of people standing around someone looking at something something was happening. So he went over to see what was happening and there was a man there who was unconscious or senseless laying on the ground and they were around him fanning him and he said what's going on with him? What happened? He inquired. They said he's fasting. And so the prophet sallall.aii wasallam said fasting during travel is not part of it's not part of righteousness. But he traveled and fasted, didn't he? So what do we understand the ver the narration to mean? traveling and this kind of fasting is not part of righteousness. This is not righteousness. Crippling yourself for the daytime of fasting, this doesn't accomplish anything. And as a matter of fact, all it does is associate negativity with the worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And so, yes, these are valid reasons to break your fast, whether it be stomach or headache or some kind of unusual issue. What about pain? Let's say a person has a toothache. Let's say a person throws his back out and they need to take a muscle relaxer or something to ease this pain. Is this a valid reason to break your fast? Yes. Yes. I want you all to get used to this, right? Because the old style of suffering and associating suffering and Allah's obedience, these are not the same thing, right? Obedience is much better than sacrifice. This is a principle. Obedience is far more virtuous than sacrifice. You're not asked to sacrifice all kinds of abnormal things. You are required to obey, right? Whether it be for travel, whether whether it be for illness, whether it be for pain, whe something that is out of the ordinary. , let's say a person is working and they're working a very difficult job that is abnormally difficult and they are so thirsty, so hungry or weak that they are on the verge of of unconsciousness or senselessness. This isn't illness, is it? This isn't travel, is it? Does it jive with does that and Allah desires ease for you? Do those two things go together? No. A person breaks his fast in this instance. This is the fatwa of the major scholars of Islam. some some I remember once a young man asked and this was a question that was directed to the major scholars in Mecca and in the u in the malis of you know that a young man was working and he had become so thirsty that he was unconscious or almost unconscious and he said you know what should can a person break his fast they said of course you break your fast where did they get this from a person may look at the sunnah and say didn't the companions have hard work in their time yes then why isn't it mentioned there it is it goes goes without saying of course it's mentioned right this is an abnormal incident this is an incidental thing it is outside of the realm of normaly therefore when these kinds of abnormal things happen person may break his fast and I've I've witnessed myself instances in New York City when I was there where the ambulance would come during the month of Ramadan three three or four times to pick people up. Why? Because they're fasting and they have diabetes and they went into a diabetic coma trying to power through the day. Who achieve what did we achieve by this exercise, right? I'll end with this. There's a narration whereb Abbas and this is to kind of drive home the understanding that obedience is superior to sacrifice. a man, an old man was walking and he had his two sons that he was leaning on and he was walking and this was in the caravan going to in the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam's Hajj. So of course when he made Hajj in the ninth year after Hijra he made this Hajj you know thousands of companions accompanied him and he came upon a man that was elderly and he had his two sons and he was walking and kind of hobbling along between his sons. And so he asked them he asked him what's what is he doing? What's what's up with this guy? Of course, he didn't say, "What's up with this guy?" But in our language, what's up with this guy? Right? And so they said, "Oh, messenger of Allah, he has vowed to make Hajj walking. He's not going to write anything. He's going to go walking to Hajj." And so the prophet sallall.aii Wasam. Imagine what he said. He said, he said, "Right. Allah does not need you or your suffering or this walking that you're doing." What does that mean? That means that just obey. Don't sacrifice unnecessarily. Don't be a martyr and exaggerate the commands of Allah. The same one that commanded you to fast is the same one that commanded you to break your fast in these circumstances. I'm walking to Hajj. I'm not going to ride. Who benefits from this? What is who has benefited from this exercise? No one. It's certainly not benefiting Allah. right? A man will be brought on the day of judgment and he will be asked Muslim. He will be asked.

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A man will be brought on the day of judgment and asked, "If you had the earth's fill of gold right now, would you give it to ransom yourself from punishment?" And he will say, "Of course." You will say, "I desired of you much less than that." But you insisted on shik. You insisted on polytheism. You insisted on superstitions. You insisted on extra. You don't have to sacrifice. All you have to do is obey. Right? If you're sick, break your fast. Make it up. Very easy. Suffering is not a component of fasting.

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