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Is it permissible for my daughter to break her fast in Ramadan due to depression and taking medications that cause side effects such as sleepiness and extreme hunger? Does she have to make up the days or pay expiation? What should I do about her difficulty waking up for Fajr prayer and delaying it, and her negligence in covering her hair due to cognitive distortion? Am I sinful because of my wife's and daughter's negligence in some religious matters, such as the hijab, knowing that I always advise them?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

It is permissible for a sick person to break their fast if fasting increases their illness, delays their recovery, causes unbearable hardship, or if a trustworthy Muslim physician advises them to do so. They must make up the fasts after recovery, unless their illness is incurable. There is no sin upon one who oversleeps and misses a prayer due to the effect of medications prescribed by trustworthy physicians. As for a man's responsibility for his wife's and daughters' hijab, a person suffering from mental illness has a unique situation that must be considered when enjoining good and forbidding evil. This involves weighing benefits and harms, and achieving the most complete benefits while warding off the greatest harms.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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