Vomiting and Islamic Fasting

As far as Islamic Shari`ah is concerned, vomiting involuntarily does not invalidate your fast in any way. But if you induce vomiting deliberately, then the fast is broken, according to the four schools of jurisprudence, and you ought to make up for the same later.



If you throw up without any voluntary action on your part and against your own will, your fasting is not at all affected. If, on the other hand, you induce vomiting deliberately, then the fast is broken according to the four schools of jurisprudence, and you ought to make up for the same later. It goes without saying that one must at all times stay away from such activities, for deliberately breaking or causing to break an obligatory fast in Ramadan is a grave sin in Islam. It has been reported that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Whoever breaks a single day of fast during Ramadan, without valid reason or sickness, he cannot hope to make up for the same by fasting a whole year (or according to some scholars an entire life-time).” In other words, the rewards he has deprived himself by invalidating a single day of fast are so incalculable or immeasurable that they cannot be regained by any other means. The above statement of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), however, should never be taken to mean that one must not make up for it. Rather it is absolutely necessary for him to make up for it by fasting later.

Therefore, no adult Muslim, male or female, ought to contemplate breaking a fast in Ramadan without valid reasons or sickness.



vomiting doesn't break the fast if it's involuntary. After the vomit passes the throat and one tries to send it back down, that will break the fast, and so will vomiting intentionally.

The Fuqahaa have explained different types of vomit.
They are as follows:

Uninduced (involuntary) or induced.
Each of the two could either be mouthful or less than a mouthful.

Thus, there exist four possible chances:

(a) Uninduced - mouthful,
(b) Uninduced - less than a mouthful,
(c)Induced - mouthful,
(d) Induced - less than a mouthful.

The vomit in each of these cases could either:
a) Exit from the mouth,
b) Unintentionally swallowed,
c) Intentionally swallowed.

Only two situations invalidate the fast:
a) Uninduced - mouthful -intentionally swallowed,
b) Induced - mouthful irrespective of whether it is swallowed or not.
(Darse Tirmidhi vol.2; Darul Uloom Karachi)




There are two kinds of mouthful vomit; one of them is the intentional vomiting, the other is the unintentional vomiting. If mouthful vomit passes the throat by itself because of an illness, then it is unanimously agreed that it does not invalidate the fast. However,, if a person swallows it intentionally, the fast becomes invalid according to Imam Muhammad, though it does not invalidate the fast according to Imam Abu Yusuf.

Self-induced vomiting will break the fast because in such a situation, something more or less goes to the stomach. Such a breaking of the fast only requires compensation (qadha). However, if less than a mouthful vomit goes back unintentionally, the fast becomes invalid according to Imam Muhammad, though it does not invalidate the fast according to Imam Abu Yusuf. If something goes inside intentionally, then the fast breaks according to both Imams.

When self-induced or involuntary vomiting passes inside as a result of one’s own free will and if that person eats or drinks because of it, then it only requires compensation (qadha).

In essence, it is wajib to wait till iftar without eating or drinking when the fast breaks by mistake. Just like after vomiting, the fast which becomes invalid by mistake, eating or drinking only requires compensation (qadha), not a Kaffaarah (atonement).

Even an involuntary mouthful vomiting does not break the fast.