According to the Shafi‘i School, When Is Swallowing Something While Fasting Considered Unavoidable?

Answered by Shaykh Irshaad Sedick

Question

According to the Shafi‘i School, when is swallowing something while fasting considered unavoidable and thus excused, such as lingering taste from acid reflux despite rinsing the mouth?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Especially Merciful.

What you have described is considered unavoidable when food particles remain in the mouth and get dislodged after cleaning, but it isn’t easy to expectorate, and Allah knows best.

Allah (Most High) says, “O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you may become righteous.” [Quran, 2:183]

The fast remains valid if any of the things that break it are done absentmindedly (i.e., not remembering the fast), out of ignorance (i.e., not knowing that these actions break the fast, whether due to being a new Muslim or living far from Islamic scholars), or under compulsion. It is not broken by:

1. Involuntary vomiting.
2. Having a wet dream or orgasm as a result of thinking or looking at something (unless the latter two typically cause orgasm, in which case the fast is broken by failing to avoid them).
3. Some water reaching the body cavity during rinsing of the mouth or nose, provided that not much water is used.
4. Swallowing food particles carried by saliva from between the teeth, provided these were cleaned (e.g., using a toothpick), and one is unable to spit them out.
5. Gathering saliva in the mouth and swallowing it, or coughing up phlegm from the throat and spitting it out.
6. The arrival of dawn, while food remains in the mouth, which is then spat out.
7. The arrival of dawn while engaging in lovemaking, provided one disengages immediately.
8. Sleeping all day or losing consciousness, provided that consciousness is regained for at least a moment during the day. [Misri, ‘Umdat al-Salik]

And Allah knows best.

[Shaykh] Irshaad Sedick
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Irshaad Sedick was raised in South Africa in a traditional Muslim family. He graduated from Dar al-Ulum al-Arabiyyah al-Islamiyyah in Strand, Western Cape, under the guidance of the late world-renowned scholar Shaykh Taha Karaan.

Shaykh Irshaad received Ijaza from many luminaries of the Islamic world, including Shaykh Taha Karaan, Mawlana Yusuf Karaan, and Mawlana Abdul Hafeez Makki, among others.

He is the author of the text “The Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal: A Hujjah or not?” He has served as the Director of the Discover Islam Centre and Al Jeem Foundation. For the last five years till present, he has served as the Khatib of Masjid Ar-Rashideen, Mowbray, Cape Town.

Shaykh Irshaad has thirteen years of teaching experience at some of the leading Islamic institutes in Cape Town). He is currently building an Islamic online learning and media platform called ‘Isnad Academy’ and has completed his Master’s degree in the study of Islam at the University of Johannesburg. He has a keen interest in healthy living and fitness.