(peace and blessings be upon him) and said, ‘My eye is troubling me. May I apply kohl while I am fasting?’ He replied, ‘Yes.’”

Al-Tirmidhī said: “This report is not strong, and nothing authentic has been reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) on this subject.” Its chain includes Abū ‘Ātikah, of whom al-Bukhārī said: “He transmits rejected hadiths.”

Those who held that such things invalidate the fast—including enemas and treating wounds that reach the membrane surrounding the brain or penetrate a body cavity—had no evidence from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Rather, they based their position on what they considered sound analogical reasoning. Their strongest evidence was his statement:

“Draw water deeply into your nose, unless you are fasting.”

They argued that this indicates that anything reaching the brain through a fasting person’s own action invalidates his fast. By analogy, the same applies to anything that reaches his bodily interior through his own action, whether by an enema or otherwise, regardless of whether it reaches the place where food and nourishment go or some other internal part of the body.

Those who exempted the instillation of drops into the urethra argued that the drops do not descend into the bodily interior but merely seep through. Thus, what enters his urethra is like what enters his mouth or nose.

Those who exempted kohl argued that the eye is unlike the genital opening and the anus: it absorbs kohl just as the body absorbs oil and water.

Those who held that kohl invalidates the fast argued that it penetrates into his body to the point that he coughs it up