Question :

Do nicotine patches applied to the skin in Ramadan invalidate fast if they were used to help the person quit smoking, or even to continue fast?

The Answer :

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of The Worlds, and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Mohammad and upon all his family and companions.

Nicotine patches and all other medical patches don`t invalidate fast because skin pores aren`t an open outlet to the coelom, and it is a condition that whatever invalidates fast should enter from an open outlet, and this doesn`t apply to such medical patches because they contain therapeutic or chemical materials that send signals through the pores of the body and absorb them through blood capillaries of the skin. After that, they enter the blood stream and circulate to the various parts of the body. It was stated in [Moghni al-Mohtaj], a Shafie book, stated: “Any material that enters the body through the skin doesn`t invalidate fast. “

This is the key idea of resolution No. 93 (1/10), issued by the Islamic Fiqh Academy after reviewing the research papers concerning matters that invalidate fast within the domain of medical treatment, along with consulting scholars and doctors. The resolution reads as follows: “ Whatever enters the body through the skin, such as oils, ointments and therapeutic patches loaded with medical or chemical materials doesn`t invalidate fast. “ And Allah Knows Best.