What if you cannot fast?

[MichelleSeeking]

I have a Ramadan question:

What if a person is physically incapable of fasting? I have a blood-sugar condition where I become severely hypoglycemic if I do not eat throughout the day. Where would this place me in Islam? Would I be sinning by not being able to fast?

Thank you!

[phatmonky]

From my readings, you would be exempt, but since you cannot fast, you are to feed at least one poor person every day in Ramadan for which you have missed fasting.

[Muslimah]

wow Michelle, I must say I am amazed phat. He gave u the exact answer. The full research on fasting 1/2/3/4 gives u all of this info. But briefly if u have a chronic disease for which doctors decided u can not fast for life, then u feed a poor person every day. If u are ill on a temporary basis, u stop fasting then make them up later.

[MichelleSeeking]

Yikes! What if you cannot afford to feed a poor person? Personally I live off of a very tight daily budget and hardly have enough food for me - let alone another person. What on earth would a Muslim do in this situation?

[phatmonky]

<i>Originally posted by Muslimah </i><b>wow Michelle, I must say I am amazed phat. He gave u the exact answer. The full research on fasting 1/2/3/4 gives u all of this info. But briefly if u have a chronic disease for which doctors decided u can not fast for life, then u feed a poor person every day. If u are ill on a temporary basis, u stop fasting then make them up later. </b>

I'm not Muslim, but I try to keep myself aware of things around me

edit - I enjoyed your posts

[phatmonky]

<i>Originally posted by MichelleSeeking </i><b>Yikes! What if you cannot afford to feed a poor person? Personally I live off of a very tight daily budget and hardly have enough food for me - let alone another person. What on earth would a Muslim do in this situation? </b>

You cannot come up with 30 dollars extra? You could make sandwich and drink packages and hand them out to local homeless people - Bread, peanut butter and jelly, canned juice - quite inexpensive

You'd be surprised at what one is able to do when they need to. good luck!

[MichelleSeeking]

$30 is a fortune!! I have less then ten bucks a day for food and food isn't cheap up here in Alaska. Right now I'm living off the McDonald's Value Menu because it's cheaper then the grocery store. That's why I asked what a Muslim would do in my situation. How do you scrape up enough money to feed a poor person for the day when you can hardly feed yourself? Can you do some other act of charity like offer prayers?

[Ali]

Even if you save 50 cents each day, that would be adequate to feed a person in Pakistan, Afghanistan etc. And if that is not possible, due to financial reasons, then a person should perform acts of charity, voluntary prayers, and ask Allah for forgiveness.

<b>“So keep your duty to Allaah and fear Him as much as you can”</b>

64:16

<b>“Allaah burdens not a person beyond his scope”</b>

2:286

Also visit Islam-Qa for more queries about fasting.

-- Ali

[Muslimah]

<i>Originally posted by phatmonky </i><b>I'm not Muslim, but I try to keep myself aware of things around me </b>

edit - I enjoyed your posts

i can see that and r u referring to my posts, well if yes thank u very much.

[Muslimah]

Michelle, giving a poor Muslim 5 dates and a glass of water to break his fast, is considered feeding him. The issue is to help another person take breakfast, not the usual morning breakfast u know, but we call the meal at sunset after fasting breakfast (iftar) so the issue is to have someone else get food for this meal instead of u. And there are many who can not afford just like yourself. and Islam is very flexible and Allah knows His creation. So 5 dates and a glass of water is enough as expiation and Allah knows best