Answer
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 one’s gums bleed while brushing his or her teeth, it would not break the fast as long as one does not do this intentionally or swallows any blood on purpose.
- If one causes his or her gums to bleed and/or swallows the blood, then fasting is broken.
The late prominent Saudi scholar Sheikh Muhammad Al-Uthaymeen (may Allah bless his soul) states:
The blood that is caused by extracting teeth or nose bleeding does not break the fast on condition that one is cautious as much as he or she can of swallowing the blood.
This is based on the fact that unintentional bleeding is not among the things that invalidate the fast. So, whoever bleeds by accident or unintentionally does not need to make up for that day of fasting.
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.