Short answer
Eye drops do not break the fast in the Hanafi school, even if you taste them in your throat. Nasal sprays and nose drops do break it. Ear drops break the fast according to the classical Hanafi texts, which most Hanafi muftis follow, though some contemporary scholars say they do not when the eardrum is intact.
Eye drops, eye ointment and kohl do not break the fast and are not makruh. Nose drops and sprays that go inside the nose break the fast, with qada only. Medicine or oil dripped into the ear breaks the fast in the classical Hanafi texts; water that enters the ear while bathing does not.
Other madhhabs
- Maliki
- Eye drops or kohl break the fast if their taste reaches the throat, so they should be used at night.
- Hanbali
- Kohl or eye drops whose taste is felt in the throat break the fast.
Explanation
The jurists judge medicines by the route they take. Something breaks the fast when it reaches the inside of the body through an open passage, such as the mouth, the nose or the back passage. The eye is not treated as such a passage, so eye drops do not break the fast in the Hanafi and Shafi'i schools, even when you feel a taste in the throat afterwards.
Nasal sprays and drops. The Prophet ﷺ told a companion to sniff water deeply into the nose except when fasting, which shows that the nose leads to the throat. So decongestant sprays, saline sprays, steroid sprays and nose drops break the fast in the Hanafi school, and one day must be made up. Use them before fajr and after maghrib, or ask your doctor about a longer-acting option.
Ear drops. The classical Hanafi texts list dripping medicine into the ear among the things that break the fast, and this is the position of most Hanafi fatwa institutions. Some contemporary scholars hold that ear drops do not break the fast when the eardrum is intact, since nothing then passes to the throat. If the eardrum is perforated, they reach the throat and break the fast in every view. The cautious course is to use ear drops at night.
- Eye drops, contact lens solution, eye ointment: fast is valid.
- Nasal spray or nose drops: fast is broken, qada only.
- Ear drops: broken in the classical Hanafi view; use at night.
- Water in the ears while showering: fast is valid.
The evidence
Quran, Surah Al-Baqara 2:187
أُحِلَّ لَكُمْ لَيْلَةَ ٱلصِّيَامِ ٱلرَّفَثُ إِلَىٰ نِسَآئِكُمْ ۚ هُنَّ لِبَاسٌۭ لَّكُمْ وَأَنتُمْ لِبَاسٌۭ لَّهُنَّ ۗ عَلِمَ ٱللَّهُ أَنَّكُمْ كُنتُمْ تَخْتَانُونَ أَنفُسَكُمْ فَتَابَ عَلَيْكُمْ وَعَفَا عَنكُمْ ۖ فَٱلْـَٰٔنَ بَٰشِرُوهُنَّ وَٱبْتَغُوا۟ مَا كَتَبَ ٱللَّهُ لَكُمْ ۚ وَكُلُوا۟ وَٱشْرَبُوا۟ حَتَّىٰ يَتَبَيَّنَ لَكُمُ ٱلْخَيْطُ ٱلْأَبْيَضُ مِنَ ٱلْخَيْطِ ٱلْأَسْوَدِ مِنَ ٱلْفَجْرِ ۖ ثُمَّ أَتِمُّوا۟ ٱلصِّيَامَ إِلَى ٱلَّيْلِ ۚ وَلَا تُبَٰشِرُوهُنَّ وَأَنتُمْ عَٰكِفُونَ فِى ٱلْمَسَٰجِدِ ۗ تِلْكَ حُدُودُ ٱللَّهِ فَلَا تَقْرَبُوهَا ۗ كَذَٰلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ ٱللَّهُ ءَايَٰتِهِۦ لِلنَّاسِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَّقُونَ ﴿١٨٧﴾
It has been made permissible for you the night preceding fasting to go to your wives [for sexual relations]. They are clothing for you and you are clothing for them. Allah knows that you used to deceive yourselves, so He accepted your repentance and forgave you. So now, have relations with them and seek that which Allah has decreed for you. And eat and drink until the white thread of dawn becomes distinct to you from the black thread [of night]. Then complete the fast until the sunset. And do not have relations with them as long as you are staying for worship in the mosques. These are the limits [set by] Allah, so do not approach them. Thus does Allah make clear His ordinances to the people that they may become righteous.
The fast is holding back from taking things into the body, which is why the jurists ask whether a medicine enters through a passage to the inside.
Sunan Abi Dawud 142
Graded sahih... وبالغ في الاستنشاق إلا أن تكون صائما ...
"Sniff the water deep into your nose, unless you are fasting."
It shows that the nose is a route to the throat, so what is put into it can break the fast.
Where the ruling is recorded
- al-Hidaya, Kitab al-Sawm, chapter on what requires qada and kaffarah. Whoever puts drops in the nose or the ear breaks the fast with qada only; applying kohl does not break it.
- Nur al-Idah with Maraqi al-Falah, Kitab al-Sawm, chapter on what does not break the fast. Kohl does not break the fast even if its taste is found in the throat.
- al-Mughni (Ibn Qudama), Kitab al-Siyam. The Hanbali view that kohl breaks the fast when it reaches the throat.
This answer is pending review by the scholars on our team. Quran translation by Sahih International. Hadith Arabic from the standard editions of the six books and the Muwatta, with gradings as recorded there; the English is our own rendering. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.