Click here to return Home
The sick
(25) In the event of any sickness that makes people feel unwell, a person is allowed not to fast. The basis for this is the aayah (interpretation of the meaning): "and whoever is ill or on a journey, the same number [of days on which one did not observe sawm must be made up] from other days." [al-Baqarah 2:185].
But if the ailment is minor, such as a cough or headache, then it is not a reason to break one's fast.
If there is medical proof, or a person knows from his usual experience, or he is certain, that fasting will make his illness worse or delay his recovery, he is permitted to break his fast; indeed, it is disliked (makrooh) for him to fast in such cases. If a person is seriously ill, he does not have to have the intention during the night to fast the following day, even if there is a possibility that he may be well in the morning,
because what counts is the present moment.
(26) If fasting will cause unconsciousness, he should break his fast and make the fast up later on. (al-Fataawa, 25/217).
If a person falls unconscious during the day and recovers before Maghrib or after, his fast is still valid, so long as he was fasting in the morning; if he is unconscious from Fajr until Maghrib, then according to the majority of scholars his fast
is not valid. According to the majority of scholars, it is obligatory for a person who falls unconscious to make up his fasts later on, no matter how long he was unconscious. (Al-Mughni ma'a al-Sharh al-Kabeer, 1/412, 3/32; al-Mawsoo'ah al-Fiqhiyyah al-Kuwaytiyyah, 5/268).
Some scholars issued fatwaas to the effect that a person who falls unconscious or takes sleeping pills or receives a general anaesthetic for a genuine reason, and becomes unconscious for three days or less, must make up the fasts later on, because he is regarded as being like one who sleeps; if he is unconscious for more than three days, he does not have to make up the fasts.