Dear respected Shaykh, assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Is it permissible to use a miswak during fasting? حكم التسوك أثناء الصيام؟

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 barakatuh. As to what follows: In response to your question, we say:   Yes, it is permissible to use a miswak during fasting because of what was transmitted by al-Bukhari and Muslim on the authority of Abu Hurairah that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “Were it not that it would be too difficult for my Ummah, I would have commanded them to use the Siwak at (the time of) every Salah" [Al-Bukhari (887) and Muslim (252)]. This includes the person who is fasting and the one who is not fasting, and includes all the prayers from the beginning of the day to its end. This is the opinion held by most of the scholars including Abu Hanifah, Malik, and Ahmad . This view is strengthened by a hadith which al-Bukhari transmitted without mentioning the chain of narrators and that is the hadith which states that ‘Amir ibn Abi Rabi’ah said, “I saw the Messenger of Allah on innumerable occasions using the miswak whilst he was fasting”.  This hadith was transmitted with a chain of narrators by Ahmad, Abu Dawud and at-Tirmithi. Thus it is Sunnah for a fasting person and the one who is not fasting to use the miswak at the time of each prayer. However, some scholars detested the use of a wet miswak because that could lead to the swallowing of moisture from it, so it is better to avoid it.

Dr. Khalid al-Mosleh

  16/08/1425