Answered by Ustadh Sufyan Qufi
Question
I burped and felt a little food come back up my throat fasting. I went to spit it out and rinse my mouth, but while rinsing, I purposefully let some water reach the back of my throat, not to drink it, but to help me get any remaining regurgitation out of my mouth.
I’m not sure if any water entered my stomach. Also, I wasn’t sure if I should have just spit out the regurgitation. Is my fast valid?
Answer
In the name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful,
I pray this finds you in the best of states.
Doubts Regarding One’s Worship
Yes, your fast is valid because you are unsure if the water you have used to rinse your mouth was swallowed.
“Certainty is not lifted by a doubt.” [Ibn Nujaym, al-Ashbah wa’l Nadha’ir; Majallat al-Ahkam al-`Adiliyya]
This means that if one is certain about something, such as the validity of our worship, with this being the basic assumption for all human actions, then we will keep assuming it valid until certain that it was not. Mere possibilities and even likelihoods do not change this.
Please see: Key Principles Relating to Certainty, Doubt, and Baseless Misgivings (waswasa)
Vomiting While Fasting
You didn’t have to spit out the food that has reached your mouth because it was in small quantity.
As long as the amount of food that has come up in your mouth doesn’t fill your mouth your fast is not broken by swallowing it back. [Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar]
May Allah Most High grant you the best of this world and the next. Please keep us in your du’as!
And Allah knows best.
Wassalam
[Ustadh] Sufyan Qufi
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Ustadh Sufyan Qufi is an advanced seeker of knowledge, originally from Algeria, who grew up in France. He began searching far and wide for answers to the fundamental questions of life and was disappointed at the answers he found. Then he connected with various traditional teachers and gradually connected with SeekersGuidance. He embarked on his journey of learning through the various teachers at SeekersGuidance, including his mentor Shaykh Faraz Rabbani. He studied numerous texts in Islamic Law, Theology, Hadith, and other areas with Shaykh Faraz Rabbani and other teachers, including Shaykh Abdurrahman al-Sha‘ar, Shaykh Ali Hani, and others. He is an active instructor at SeekersGuidance and answers questions through the SeekersGuidance Answers Service.