How Should I Deal with Saliva Aggregating in My Mouth during Fasting?
Hanafi Fiqh
Answered by Ustadh Sufyan Qufi
Question
My mouth produces a great amount of saliva while I’m fasting. I have to spit it out repeatedly after every 5 minutes. Due to this condition, I cannot recite Quran or pray properly. Please give me some guidance.
Answer
In the name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful,
I pray this finds you in the best of states.
You don’t have to spit out your saliva while fasting. Swallowing saliva inside your mouth won’t break your fast. Even if the amount of saliva is huge. Nonetheless, it is disliked for someone fasting to deliberately gather saliva in his mouth and swallow it. But even in this case, the fast remains valid. [Shurunbulali, Nur al-Idah]
There are many reasons for the fact that swallowing one’s saliva does not break one’s fast. One of them is that it is simply unavoidable. [Shurunbulali, Maraqi al-Falah]
Allah, Most High, says: “Allah does not like to impose a difficulty on you.” [Quran, 5:6]
And Allah knows best.
Wassalam,
[Ustadh] Sufyan Qufi
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Ustadh Sufyan Qufi is an advanced seeker of knowledge, originally from Algeria, who grew up in France. He began searching far and wide for answers to the fundamental questions of life and was disappointed at the answers he found.
Then he connected with various traditional teachers and gradually connected with SeekersGuidance. He embarked on his journey of learning through the various teachers at SeekersGuidance, including his mentor Shaykh Faraz Rabbani.
He studied numerous texts in Islamic Law, Theology, Hadith, and other areas with Shaykh Faraz Rabbani and other teachers, including Abdurrahman al-Sha‘ar, Shaykh Ali Hani, and others.
He is an active instructor at SeekersGuidance and answers questions through the SeekersGuidance Answers Service.
