Covid vaccine and fasting
Question:
Two questions:
1. Does vaccine injection break the fast?
2. Does Oxford-AstraZeneca contain haram ingredients?
Answer:
Injection with vaccine does not break the fast and Oxford-AstraZeneca and no other vaccine is haram. I will explain the reasoning for you here. However before that I would like to answer your questions from a more important perspective:
It is important to understand the concept of pandemic and vaccination. In a pandemic situation, every individual is responsible to not only remain safe from the virus, but also to keep others safe from it, and to avoid putting others in risk. In the situation that the world is in right now, this can be done by the following certain essential measures, some of which are:
- Following the socialising rules, whether an individual is in agreement with them or not
- Following hygiene instructions
- Getting vaccination to contribute into the concept of herd immunity
- Not to do anything that may impose unnecessary workload or complications on the health service of the country
As a Muslim, we are even more responsible to observe the above. The Qur'an says "... who so saves the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind ..." (5:32). Following the above definitely contributes in saving lives and not following them will do the reverse.
As a Muslim I find it rather selfish to think, in this situation, whether I should take the vaccine while fasting and whether it is haram. If we decide not to take the vaccine, then probably this will prompt us to change our vaccine date. This is us imposing unnecessary workload and complications on the health service. If we decide that the vaccine is haram, then we will delay our vaccination, waiting for one that we consider to be not haram, and that will contribute in delaying herd immunity.
As I wrote at the start of this answer, and as I show below in more detail, the answer to both questions is definitely 'No'. However based on the above, I would like to say that as a Muslim who likes to follow the guidance of the Qur'an, if the answer to both questions was 'Yes', I would still consider it my obligation to go for it, and in this way to contribute into saving lives, and to avoid imposing difficulty on the system and unintentionally putting lives of others in danger.
Technical points:
If you agree with the above then you do not need to have any concerns about the technicalities of the matter. I however write those here as well for your information:
1. Getting injection while fasting:
The fasting instruction is to not eat or drink during the day. Injection is not eating or drinking. If you get injection and some one asks you have you eaten, you will not say Yes! This is an agreed upon view among most of the scholars. The only kind of injection that is considered as equivalent to drinking and eating is injection for nourishment. Obviously this does not include Covid vaccine. You can check one of the most traditional based question and answer services on Islam here where you find the same view.
2. Oxford-AstraZeneca or other vaccines, haram?
According to the reliable resources the only originally haram ingredient in this vaccine is ethanol. Each dose will have 0.002g ethanol. This amount is so negligible that it certainly loses any intoxicating effect in the process. The is called Istihala (changing of a substance in a way that it no longer has the features of the original substance). Therefore there is nothing haram in this vaccine.
For the same reason, any other vaccine that may originally have haram ingredients will be out of the haram category by the end of the production process. To read more technical details about this you can see this report from Wifaqululama.
Note: I would also like to add a further comment here. The only people who should be trusted with the matters related to the medical aspects of virus, pandemic, herd immunity and vaccination are qualified specialists in these matters. A scholar of Islam may form religious views after receiving information from these specialists. However no scholar of Islam is in a position to provide medical information on these subjects, unless he/she is a qualified specialist too.
--------
Farhad Shafti
April 2021
Two questions:
1. Does vaccine injection break the fast?
2. Does Oxford-AstraZeneca contain haram ingredients?
Answer:
Injection with vaccine does not break the fast and Oxford-AstraZeneca and no other vaccine is haram. I will explain the reasoning for you here. However before that I would like to answer your questions from a more important perspective:
It is important to understand the concept of pandemic and vaccination. In a pandemic situation, every individual is responsible to not only remain safe from the virus, but also to keep others safe from it, and to avoid putting others in risk. In the situation that the world is in right now, this can be done by the following certain essential measures, some of which are:
- Following the socialising rules, whether an individual is in agreement with them or not
- Following hygiene instructions
- Getting vaccination to contribute into the concept of herd immunity
- Not to do anything that may impose unnecessary workload or complications on the health service of the country
As a Muslim, we are even more responsible to observe the above. The Qur'an says "... who so saves the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind ..." (5:32). Following the above definitely contributes in saving lives and not following them will do the reverse.
As a Muslim I find it rather selfish to think, in this situation, whether I should take the vaccine while fasting and whether it is haram. If we decide not to take the vaccine, then probably this will prompt us to change our vaccine date. This is us imposing unnecessary workload and complications on the health service. If we decide that the vaccine is haram, then we will delay our vaccination, waiting for one that we consider to be not haram, and that will contribute in delaying herd immunity.
As I wrote at the start of this answer, and as I show below in more detail, the answer to both questions is definitely 'No'. However based on the above, I would like to say that as a Muslim who likes to follow the guidance of the Qur'an, if the answer to both questions was 'Yes', I would still consider it my obligation to go for it, and in this way to contribute into saving lives, and to avoid imposing difficulty on the system and unintentionally putting lives of others in danger.
Technical points:
If you agree with the above then you do not need to have any concerns about the technicalities of the matter. I however write those here as well for your information:
1. Getting injection while fasting:
The fasting instruction is to not eat or drink during the day. Injection is not eating or drinking. If you get injection and some one asks you have you eaten, you will not say Yes! This is an agreed upon view among most of the scholars. The only kind of injection that is considered as equivalent to drinking and eating is injection for nourishment. Obviously this does not include Covid vaccine. You can check one of the most traditional based question and answer services on Islam here where you find the same view.
2. Oxford-AstraZeneca or other vaccines, haram?
According to the reliable resources the only originally haram ingredient in this vaccine is ethanol. Each dose will have 0.002g ethanol. This amount is so negligible that it certainly loses any intoxicating effect in the process. The is called Istihala (changing of a substance in a way that it no longer has the features of the original substance). Therefore there is nothing haram in this vaccine.
For the same reason, any other vaccine that may originally have haram ingredients will be out of the haram category by the end of the production process. To read more technical details about this you can see this report from Wifaqululama.
Note: I would also like to add a further comment here. The only people who should be trusted with the matters related to the medical aspects of virus, pandemic, herd immunity and vaccination are qualified specialists in these matters. A scholar of Islam may form religious views after receiving information from these specialists. However no scholar of Islam is in a position to provide medical information on these subjects, unless he/she is a qualified specialist too.
--------
Farhad Shafti
April 2021