Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Let say someone is suffering from a sore throat and is taking throat lozenges to soothe the irritation. Sometimes the person may become oblivious that he is constantly sucking the lozenge and becomes accustomed to it. The person is in a state of wudu, takes a lozenge, after sometime, he goes to make salaah, forgetting that he is sucking a lozenge, after Takbir tahrimah or in the second rakaat or even after he finishes the salaah, he realizes that the is/was sucking a lozenge, is his salaah valid (he does not swallow the lozenge)?
Assalamu alaikum,
In the name of Allah, the inspirer of truth. All praise is to Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate, and all blessings and peace to our Master Muhammad, his family, companions, and those who follow them.
This would invalidate the prayer, as opposed to chewing gum that has lost its flavor.
The general principle is mentioned by Imam al-Tumurtashi in his Tanwir al-Absar, which is widely accepted as the best of the late fiqh primers (mutun) in the Hanafi school, because of its precision and details, with notes from Imam al-Haskafi (D) and Imam Ibn Abidin (A),
“Any eating or drinking invalidates the prayer (A: whether a little or a lot, intentional or accidental) unless there was something edible (D: less than the extent of a chickpea) between one’s teeth and one swallowed it.”
Imam al-Haskafi added in his commentary al-Durr al-Mukhtar Sharh Tanwir al-Absar,
“As for chewing, it invalidates the prayer (A: if excessive, which is determined to be three consecutive movements [f: or that which an onlooker would consider excessive]), such as sugar that is in one’s mouth and which melts and one swallows it. (A: What invalidates, then, is either excessive chewing, or the actual traces of food going down to one’s body cavity, as opposed to the mere taste.)” [Radd al-Muhtar `ala al-Durr al-Mukhtar Sharh Tanwir al-Absar, ‘Mufsidat al-Salat’]
And Allah alone gives success.
Wassalam,
Faraz Rabbani.