Question

Salaams – My question was that I have a saliva problem which I have had since young. Whenever I sleep and then wake up, I get really bad saliva filled in my mouth and this makes me really sick. Also, with the saliva my mouth also feels extremely dirty due to mouth infection etc.

During Ramadhan when I fast, I feel extremely sick when I wake up after suhoor. I will usually be at the sink for half an hour sometimes longer sometimes less than that trying to clean my mouth. However, after trying so hard my saliva then settles but sometimes I have to keep spitting. I try my best not to sleep after sehri in order to prevent myself from feeling sick in the morning. However, because of how early suhoor is I end up falling asleep and then have major anxiety when I wake up as I know what I will have to go through.

I have fasted previous years too but this year I was feeling too scared to go through that experience again. My question was that 1) would it be permissible to fast during the winter months instead where the fasts are short? So in this way I would not sleep after suhoor which means no morning sickness. Or 2) – would I be allowed to give fidya for the fasts missed.

Also – if I did not fast due to this reason – would I be sinful as it is not a life threatening condition?

Answer

We pray that Allah the Almighty eases your situation for you.

Based on the question it seems that fasting itself is not harmful for you. Rather, sleeping after suhur is what is causing you this discomfort. In such a case it would not be permissible for you to defer your fasts to a later time in the year. Your focus should be on trying to minimise the feeling of sickness by possibly altering your sleeping pattern throughout Ramadan. You may want to try sleeping after maghrib and get most of your rest at that time and then wake up later in the night for ‘isha, tarawih, suhur and fajr. Thereafter, you should then try and engage yourself in those activities which will help you stay awake after fajr, as opposed to make you sleepy.

Answered by:
Ifta Research Fellow

Checked & Approved by:
Mufti Abdul Rahman Mangera
Mufti Zubair Patel