Hadhrat Muftī Shafī Sahib R.A has written a detailed Fatwā with regards to injections. The Fatwā was then attested, by the likes of Hadhrat Maulānā Hussain Ahmed Madanī R.A and Hadhrat Maulānā Ashraf Alī Thānwī R.A. The reality is that whatever is inserted into the body through injection, travels through the veins before it reaches the heart, brain or stomach. The passage it travels through is not taken as a direct one.

منفذ اصلى

Many examples can be found for this, in the work of the Fuqahā, where they deduce that the fast is not broken when something does not reach inside directly.

They say that injury is of two types:

[1] Aammah[آمّة]
[2] Jaa’ifah [جائفة]

Aammah is a deep injury, which reaches the roots of the brain. When medicine is applied, it goes inside directly. Jaa’ifah is a deep injury that affects the abdomen. Any medicine administered there, reaches the stomach. Since they both reach inside directly, they break the fast.

As for the other injuries like on the thigh, shin, arm etc. any medicine applied there doesn’t reach the stomach directly. Even though the effects can reach the stomach at some level, the Fuqahā state that this does not invalidate the fast.

Masā’il Pg.136. Hidāyah Pg.200.

Muftī Shafī Sahib R.A writes, it is very clear that injections did not exist in the time of Rasūlullāh ﷺ nor during the times of the A’imā Mujtahideen. Therefore, no one can produce a Hadīth or any quote of the A’imā with regards to the injection Mas’ala. We will have to analyse it with some general principles and similarities.

We can take the Mas’ala from a snake or scorpion bite. The venom penetrates into the body. Most times, snake poison affects the brain and kills. Wasp bites swell the part which was bitten, which means that some foreign body has entered inside. However, no Faqeeh in the world has said that this invalidates the fast. They all say that it should be treated, but the fast will be ok, as long as nothing is consumed orally to treat the bite.

Injections were only invented after experiencing the effects of insect bites. i.e. that the bites had an immediate effect on the body, so injections should also work in the same way, in the sense that the medicine would immediately affect the body, rather than traveling through the stomach and blood system which would require some time.

When we carefully study the wordings of Badaa’ius Sanaa’i regarding the reasons snake and insect bites don’t break the fast, we understand that when something enters the human body, it does not instantly break the fast. There are two conditions attached to it:

[1] It should reach the inside of the stomach or into the brain.

[2] It should reach there through a direct passage. (This is why if a stroke patient has a tube inserted into his throat and liquid food goes directly to his stomach, it invalidates the fast).

With the case of an injection, no doubt the effects reach the whole body, however, this is not through منفذ أصلى (a direct, original passage).

We see in hot seasons people bathe with cold water. The cold effects go inside the body and cool it down just as a chilled drink would cool it. However, this coolness goes through the pores of the skin and not directly to the inside (jawf).

الجواب صحيح مولانا اشرف على تهانوى, مولانا حسين أحمد مدنى, مولانا اصغر حسين , مولانا إعزاز على
11 ربيع الاول 1350 ه. مسائل روزه مولانا رفعة قاسمى ص 137,138,139
ترجمة شيخ عبد الرحيم

Similarly, injections take the medicine, glucose, penicillin, insulin etc. through the veins. Glucose energises the body but just energising does not break the fast. Therefore, the conclusion is that injections do not break the fast, unless an injection is administered directly in the stomach or in the brain.

Please note that it would be Makrūh to take glucose injections during the fast because it contradicts the purpose of fasting. Also, it would be preferable to take all injections after Iftaar, during the night. This is because there is some Ikhtilāf (difference of opinion) in the Mas’ala, so Ihtiyāt (caution) would be better.

أحكام

Extracted from A Gift for Ramadhan, Page 71.

A Gift For Ramadhan – New 3rd Revised Edition