Dear respected Shaykh, assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Allah I am afflicted with leukemia, and I am undergoing chemotherapy. For removing residue doctors make a liquid go through my veins and they also transfuse me with blood and plasma. Does this procedure nullify the fast or not? حقن الدم للصائم

Praise be to Allah, and may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah, his family and his companions.   Wa alaikum assalam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu     Undoubtedly this illness make it permissible to break fast. It is better that you should not overburden yourself by fasting. If you can make up for the missed days in fasting then you should do so, or else you should feed a poor person for every missed day of fasting.   As for the blood injection, whether it is for this type of disease or other types; the opinion of most of the contemporary scholars is that it breaks the fast, because the blood that enters the body  causes strengthening of the body and safeguarding it as is done by food and drink.   A group of scholars were of the opinion that a blood injection does not break the fast, because it is neither food nor drink, nor does it have their qualities in all aspects. Strengthening the body and safeguarding it is one the goals of food and drink and their happening to the fasting person through other things besides them does not nullify the fast. This can be supported by what was transmitted in al-Bukhaari (no. 1922) and Muslim (no. 1102) from the hadeeth of  ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him and his father) in the story of the continuous fasting of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and his prohibiting his companions from that. They said, “But you fast continuously!”. He said, “I am not like you, my Lord feeds me and provides me with drink”.  And it is known that this food and drink is not food and drink which results in the breaking of the fast, rather, it is what Allah the Exalted provided His Messenger (peace be upon him) in the form of strength which is acquired by engaging in the worship of Allah, which left him in no need of food and drink. It may be said, “The acquisition of strengthen by the body and its non-requirement of food and drink without eating or drinking does not break the fast.”   Furthermore the principle is that anything cannot be considered to break the fast unless there is proof for that, and there is no proof nor obvious analogy which may establish that a blood injection cause the fast to break. Based on that, the opinion which is nearer to the truth from the two opinions is that a blood injection does not break fast. And Allah knows best.  

Your brother

Dr. Khaalid al-Mosleh

20/9/1428 AH