Answer
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
If you need to take insulin, then you belong to the category of people who are exempt from fasting, so you should not fast.
In his response to your question, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states:
If you need to inject insulin, then you belong to the category of people who are exempt from fasting, so you should not fast. It is not at all considered an act of piety to fast while one is suffering from the type of diabetes that requires insulin injection during the day.
It should be a source of comfort for you to know that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Allah loves His servants to make use of His concessions even as He loves them to carry out His strict orders.”
In Surat Al-Baqarah, after enjoining fasting and then exempting those who are sick and on journey from the duty of fasting, Allah says, {Allah desires for you ease; He desires not hardship for you.} (Al-Baqarah 2:185)
Furthermore, we are ordered not to commit acts that may endanger our life; so stick to the path of moderation and skip fasting while you are sick and make up for it later if you can. Otherwise, you simply offer fidyah, which involves feeding a poor person for each day of fast you have missed.
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.