Does acupuncture, if it is used to decrease or increase weight, break
thefast of one who is fasting?.
Praise be to Allaah.
Firstly:
Using needles is an ancient Chinese way of reducing pain and treating
a number of various diseases by inserting needles into various parts
of the body.
The specialist in this field, who is called the acupuncturist, inserts
a sharp needle into any oneof hundreds of specific points on the body.
Insertion of the needle causes a sharp prick, but this quickly
dissipates, to be followed by a pricklingsensation or feelings of
dizziness or drowsiness, or by pain when the needle is left in place.
Acupuncture is used to reduce pain and to treat various cases which
include arthritis, asthma, migraine, abscesses and eye diseases, in
addition to some forms of mental illness. The Chinese still use this
method and sincethe end of the 1950s this traditional method has been
used to reduce pain in major surgery, where the patient remains awake
but feels a little discomfort or does not feel any pain at all.
See: al-Mawsoo'ah al-'Arabiyyah al-'Ilmiyyah (al-Wakhz bi'l-Ibar).
Secondly:
Abu'l-Waleed ibn Rushd said:
They are unanimously agreed that at the time offasting, the fasting
personmust abstain from food and drink, and intercourse, because Allah
says (interpretation of themeaning):
"So now have sexual relations with them and seek that which Allaah has
ordained for you (offspring), and eat and drink until the white thread
(light) of dawn appears to you distinct from the black thread
(darkness of night)"
[al-Baqarah 2:187]
And they differed concerning some issues. Some they kept quiet about
and some they spoke about. As for those that they kept quiet about,
one of them has todo with what reaches the inside of the body
(al-jawf) but is not nourishment and what reaches the inside of the
body by a route other than that by which food and drink reach it, such
as injections.
The reason for their differences is based on the way they looked at
that which nourishes and that which does not nourish, because the
textsspeak of that which nourishes. So those who thought of fasting as
a rational concept did not regard that which nourishes as being the
same as that which does not nourish. Those who thought of fasting as
an act of worship and something that is not subject to any rational
discussion said that what is meant by fasting is simply refraining
from whatever may reach the inside of the body, whether it is
nourishing or not nourishing.
Thirdly:
Injections which are meant as medical treatment and not as foodor
nourishment do not break the fast of the fasting person, whether they
are intravenous or intramuscular. Injections which are meant to
provide nourishment do break the fast, as is the view of the majority
of modern scholars.
This has been discussed previously in the answer to question no. 65632
. See also Muftiraat al-Siyaam al-Mu'aasirah by Dr. Ahmad al-Khaleel,
65-68
Fourthly:
The needles used in acupuncture do not come under the same heading as
injections meant to provide nourishment and they do not come under the
heading of food or drink; rather no kind of solution or liquid can be
introduced to the body through them, as is the case with regular
medicinal injections. Rather they are a kind of pricking that is
administered to specific places on the body with no intention of using
them to introduce any kind of liquid into the body, as mentioned
above.
Based on that, they do not affect the fast and there is nothing wrong
with using them for medicinal treatments, if it is proven that they
are of benefit to the patient.
And Allah knows best.
'' Our Lord ! grant us good in this world and good in the hereafter and save us from the torment of the Fire '' [Ameen]
-
{in Arab} :->
Rabbanaa aatinaa fid-dunyaa hasanatan wafil aakhirati hasanatan waqinaa 'athaaban-naar/-
(Surah Al-Baqarah ,verse 201)
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