Almighty Allah Knows best.

Q:

Salam Alaikum. I heard a mufti who says that this ramadhaan we are exempted from fasting due to the Coronavirus. He says fasting will cause dehydration and that the mouth should always be moist. I wanted to know if this is permissible Islamically. If we should skip and replace or push on and fast. Jazak Allahu kheiran.

A:

Wa `alaykum As-Salamu waRahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.

I don’t know what the mufti has done; I cannot comment on his fatwa without knowing the context. If he meant to say that those who are infected with the COVID virus should not fast, I would agree with that statement, if that is the advice of the health personnel who are the experts who can advise on the matter. A mufti is not a physician; he can, however, give a fatwa that if a person is sick and his sickness worsens because of fasting, he should not fast. That is what the Quran teaches us: “Those of you who are sick or traveling should skip the fast and make up the fasts thus missed later’. As for those who cannot expect to get better, they should feed a needy person for every day of the fast they have missed.

As for those who are not sick and are healthy must observe the fast unless they are traveling or too old to fast or, as is the case of women (menstruating or undergoing post-natal period).

Almighty Allah Knows best.