What is the ruling on using ointments for dryness of the nose and lips for the one who is fasting?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Honorable Shaykh Muhammad, some of those who are fasting find dryness in their nose or on their lips, so they use some ointments or moisturizers for that. What is the ruling on this?
The Shaykh : Some of those who are fasting find dryness in their nose and on their lips. There is no harm in a person using what moistens the lips and nose, such as an ointment, or wetting it with water on a cloth or something similar. However, one must be careful that nothing from this substance, which he used to remove the dryness, reaches his stomach.
The questioner : Yes, but if something reaches it unintentionally.
The Shaykh : If something from this substance reaches it, he owes nothing, just as if he rinsed his mouth and something reached his stomach, his fast is not broken by that.
The Shaykh : Some of those who are fasting find dryness in their nose and on their lips. There is no harm in a person using what moistens the lips and nose, such as an ointment, or wetting it with water on a cloth or something similar. However, one must be careful that nothing from this substance, which he used to remove the dryness, reaches his stomach.
The questioner : Yes, but if something reaches it unintentionally.
The Shaykh : If something from this substance reaches it, he owes nothing, just as if he rinsed his mouth and something reached his stomach, his fast is not broken by that.
Source
ابن العثيمين - فتاوى الصيام — archive.org (13:10)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.