Is My Fast Valid if I Mistakenly Licked the Lotion on My Face?

Answered by Ustadh Salman Younas

Question

If I am fasting and I apply lotion to my face, I lick the sides of my lips to my skin because my lips feel dry, and it feels like I got a taste of the lotion (I don’t know), is my fast still valid? If I apply vaseline to my lips and lick, then is my fast valid?

Answer

The fast is valid as the base assumption is you did not consume the lotion. Simply tasting it would not invalidate the fast.

You should, however, avoid licking your lips like this during the fast, especially if you have applied something to them, or avoid applying anything to them while you are fasting. [al-Shurunbulali, Maraqi al-Falah; Ibn ‘Abidin, Hashiya]

[Ustadh] Salman Younas
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Born and raised in New York, Ustadh Salman Younas graduated from Stony Brook University with a degree in Political Science and Religious Studies. After studying the Islamic sciences online and with local scholars in New York, Ustadh Salman moved to Amman. There he studied Islamic law, legal methodology, belief, hadith methodology, logic, Arabic, and tafsir. He is now in his final year of his PhD at Oxford University, looking at the early evolution of the Hanafi madhab.
His teachers include: Shaykh Faraz Rabbani, Shaykh Salah Abu’l Hajj, Shaykh Ashraf Muneeb, Shaykh Ahmad Hasanat, Shaykh Hamza Karamali, Shaykh Ahmad Snobar, Shaykh Ali Hani, Shaykh Hamza Bakri, Ustadh Rajab Harun and others.
Ustadh Salman’s personal interests include research into the fields of law/legal methodology, hadith, theology, as well as political theory, government, media, and ethics. He is also an avid traveler and book collector. He currently resides in the UK with his wife.