Praise be to Allah.
Firstly:
Everything that constitutes food or drink, or comes under the heading of food or drink, is among the things that break the fast.
The scholars of the Standing Committee for Issuing Fatwas said:
The things that spoil the fast are many, including eating or drinking deliberately. Included under the heading of food and drink is everything that enters the stomach of food or water, which includes that which enters the stomach via the nose (naso-gastric tube), and it also includes nutrients administered via a drip.
End quote from Fatawa al-Lajnah ad-Daa’imah (9/178)
Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
The things that break the fast are: food and drink, no matter what type of food or drink they are. Also included under the heading of food and drink are injections, that is needles that contain nutrients for the body or that give energy as food does. These things break the fast….
End quote from Majmoo‘ Fatawa wa Rasaa’il al-‘Uthaymeen (19/21)
He also said:
The scholars included with things that break the fast anything that comes under the heading of food and drink, such as nutritional injections. These nutrients are not what gives energy to the body or heals it; rather nutritional injections are those that take the place of food and drink. Based on that, all injections that do not take the place of food and drink do not break the fast, whether they are given into a vein, or into the thigh, or any other place.
End quote from Majmoo‘ Fatawa wa Rasaa’il al-‘Uthaymeen (19/199)
Secondly:
Saline solutions that are given to some patients intravenously do invalidate the fast, because they come under the heading of nutrients, as they contain salts and fluids that enter the stomach and benefit the body.
Thirdly:
With regard to vitamin injections and intravenous injections:
If they are only taken to energise the body, relieve or reduce pain, or lower the temperature, and they do not contain any nutrients, then they do not break the fast.
But if they contain nutrients, then they do break the fast, because they are taking the place of food and drink, so they come under the same ruling.
The scholars of the Standing Committee for Issuing Fatwas said:
It is permissible to give medicine by means of intramuscular or intravenous injections for one who is fasting during the day in Ramadan, but it is not permissible for one who is fasting to be given a nutritional injection during the day in Ramadan, because that comes under the same ruling as consuming food or drink, so taking these injections is regarded as a kind of loophole in Ramadan. If it is possible to give the intramuscular or intravenous injection at night, that is preferable.
End quote from Fatawa al-Lajnah ad-Daa’imah (10/252)
Fourthly:
Anal suppositories do not break the fast, because they are only taken for medicinal purposes, and they do not come under the heading of food or drink.
Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
There is nothing wrong with the fasting person using suppositories that are inserted into the anus, if he is sick, because this is not food or drink and does not come under the heading of food or drink. The Lawgiver has only forbidden us to eat or drink, so whatever takes the place of food or drink comes under the same ruling as food or drink. But whatever is not like that does not come under the heading of food or drink in any sense, therefore the ruling on food and drink does not apply to it.
End quote from Majmoo‘ Fatawa wa Rasaa’il al-‘Uthaymeen (19/204)
For more information, please see the answers to questions no. 49706, 37749, 38023
And Allah knows best.
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