How Can I Eat with Bleeding Gums?

Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch

Question 

What is the verdict for a sister who has an issue of her gums bleeding when she brushes her teeth. Her gums stay red and inflamed for hours and even days and during that time there may be some blood around the gums but it doesn’t flow out. If she presses a tissue next to her gums, she sees that some traces of blood are on the tissue. While she is working on treatment, how should she eat food when one is not allowed to consume blood?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

Constant Blood in the Gums

If one is constantly dealing with blood in the gums and the blood does not flow, but merely gatherings around the gum lining, this blood does not invalidate the ablution (wudu) and is therefore, not impure at all. Only flowing blood is seen as impure. [Tahtawi/Shurunbulali, Hashiyat Maraqi al-Falah]

That said, the taste of blood while eating is pure and permissible.

Hope this helps
Allah knows best
[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Yusuf Weltch is a teacher of Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he then completed four years at the Darul Uloom seminary in New York where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences. He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he stayed for three years studying in Dar Al-Mustafa under some of the greatest scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib. In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Qur’an and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Qur’anic exegesis, Islamic history, and a number of texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.