How Should I Navigate Fasting with a Chronic Condition That Requires Medication and a Liquid Diet, and What About Missed Fasts from Menstruation?
Question
Salam alaikum.
I grind my teeth while sleeping, which causes severe headaches and jaw pain throughout the day. This requires me to be on a liquid diet and to take medication for pain. How should I navigate fasting? When am I allowed to break the fast due to illness? Are there certain conditions that must be met? And should I pay kaffarah or fidyah for days missed from last Ramadan due to menstruation?
Answer
Alhamdulillah, wassalatu wassalamu ala rasulillah, wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajmain.
Your situation involves illness, use of medication, and prior missed fasts, each of which has a clear ruling in Sharia. Islam approaches these matters with mercy and precision, not guilt or hardship.
1. The Shar‘i Context
Fasting is an obligation, but not at the expense of health.
Allah says:
“And whoever among you is sick or on a journey, then an equal number of other days.”
Surat al Baqarah 2:185
And Allah says:
“Allah does not burden a soul beyond its capacity.”
Surat al Baqarah 2:286
These verses establish that illness is a valid legal excuse to break the fast when fasting causes harm.
2. When Is It Permissible to Break the Fast Due to Illness
The scholars explained that a person may break the fast if fasting:
- Causes real harm
- Worsens the condition
- Delays recovery
- Requires medication or nutrition that invalidates the fast
Severe jaw pain requiring a liquid diet and pain medication is not minor discomfort. If:
- You cannot function without medication, or
- You require liquid nutrition during the day, or
- Continuing the fast significantly worsens pain or triggers migraines
then you are permitted to break the fast, and it may even be required to do so.
You do not need to wait until you collapse or reach an extreme state. The standard is reasonable harm, not catastrophe.
3. Do You Need a Doctor or Can You Use Your Own Judgment
Sharia allows reliance on:
- Trustworthy medical advice, and
- Clear personal experience
If you know from experience that not taking medication or nutrition causes severe pain and dysfunction, you may rely on that knowledge.
A sheikh explains the ruling; a doctor assesses medical harm. You do not need permission from a sheikh to protect your health.
4. What Is Required Instead of Fasting
This depends on whether your condition is temporary or ongoing.
- If your condition is temporary or treatable, then you break the fast on affected days and make them up later (qada) when you are able.
- If your condition is chronic, with no reasonable expectation that you can fast safely in the foreseeable future, then you do not make up the fasts. Instead, you give fidyah: feeding one poor person for each missed day.
This determination is made based on medical reality, not hope alone.
5. Medication During the Fast
Any oral medication taken during fasting hours breaks the fast.
If you must take medication during the day to manage pain, then that day’s fast is broken and must be handled according to the rulings above, without sin.
6. Missed Fasts Due to Menstruation
This is very important to clarify.
Missed fasts due to menstruation:
- Do not require kaffarah
- Do not require fidyah
- Require qada only
The Prophet said that women were commanded to make up fasts missed due to menstruation but not prayers.
Therefore:
- You must make up those days when you are able
- You do not feed the poor instead unless you are genuinely unable to ever fast them
7. Relevant Usul Principles
القدرة شرط في التكليف
Ability is a condition for obligation.
Sharia obligations apply according to capacity, not ideal scenarios.
Final Ruling
If your jaw pain and headaches require daytime medication or liquid nutrition, you are permitted to break the fast on those days, and you are not sinful.
If the condition is temporary, you make up the missed fasts later when able. If it is chronic with no reasonable expectation of safe fasting, you give fidyah instead.
Missed fasts from menstruation are handled by qada only, not kaffarah or fidyah.
Islam does not require you to sacrifice your health. Protecting your body is part of obedience to Allah.
And Allah knows best.