What is the ruling on the drop placed in the eye for the fasting person? Does it break the fast?
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The questioner : What is the ruling on the drop placed in the eye for the fasting person? Does it break the fast?
The Shaykh : The drop placed in the eye while fasting does not break the fast, even if its taste is found in the throat, because the eye is not a passage; that is, it is not customary for a person to eat from his eye or for food to enter his body through his eye. For this reason, there is a distinction between placing medicine in the eye until it reaches the throat and placing medicine in the nose until it reaches the throat or the stomach, because the nose is a passage through which food passes, unlike the eye. For this reason, the scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) said: If a person steps on something sharp and feels its taste in his throat, he does not break his fast. It is said: Likewise, if he applies kohl to his eye with sharp kohl and finds its taste in his throat, he does not break his fast. This is the stronger opinion, which the Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) chose, and it is in accordance with what the evidence of the Shari'ah requires.
The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.
The Shaykh : The drop placed in the eye while fasting does not break the fast, even if its taste is found in the throat, because the eye is not a passage; that is, it is not customary for a person to eat from his eye or for food to enter his body through his eye. For this reason, there is a distinction between placing medicine in the eye until it reaches the throat and placing medicine in the nose until it reaches the throat or the stomach, because the nose is a passage through which food passes, unlike the eye. For this reason, the scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) said: If a person steps on something sharp and feels its taste in his throat, he does not break his fast. It is said: Likewise, if he applies kohl to his eye with sharp kohl and finds its taste in his throat, he does not break his fast. This is the stronger opinion, which the Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) chose, and it is in accordance with what the evidence of the Shari'ah requires.
The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.