I am not clear whether brushing your teeth during Fast is acceptable or not. What I mean is that if I brush my teeth when I get up after Sehri, is it in violation to any Islamic Principle?
Answer
Brushing your teeth when you are fasting is not advisable. However, it’s difficult to say that it breaks your fast. The reason why it seems to be inadvisable is that we use tooth paste these days to brush our teeth. There is always a possibility that some substance of it might ‘get in’ inadvertently. Also, the fact that you do on accasions taste the paste while using it makes it a little doubtful during fasting. However, if somebody insists that these problems don’t occur in his case, you can’t stop the individual by claiming that it breaks your fast. One needs to have a clear verdict from the Shari’ah to make that kind of a statement.
I would, however, urge a careful Muslim to brush his teeth at non-fasting times and avoid getting into a territory which is unsafe. However, using ‘miswak’ for cleaning teeth is okay even when one is fasting, because it doesn’t carry any of the problems associated with tooth brushing with pastes.