Is it permissible for him not to fast because he has chronic constipation and needs to take medication and laxatives?
1.. If you will suffer real hardship from fasting, for which you need to take medication or laxatives by mouth, it is permissible for you not to fast. But if the medication can be taken by injection or by rectal suppositories, this does not invalidate the fast, so in this case it is not permissible to take the medication by mouth, because that breaks the fast in Ramadan with no excuse. 2. If you do not fast, then the matter should be examined further: if the sickness is one from which there is hope of recovery, even after a few months, then in that case you may not fast, and you should make up the fasts later on, when it becomes easy for you to make them up, even if you spread out the days on which you fast, and it is not acceptable for you to feed poor people instead. But if a trustworthy doctor says that it is a sickness from which there is no hope of recovery, and you cannot fast except with real difficulty, because you need to break the fast in order to take medicine, then in this case you should feed one poor person for each day. Please see the long answer.
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