Definition of Fasting
- Fasting in the holy Shari’ah (jurisprudence) of Islam is equal to that with the intention of obeying God; a person does not eat or drink and avoids other things, which will be elaborated on later, all day long (from fajr to maghrib: from dawn till after sunset, when the redness in the eastern sky is gone).
2. From one perspective, there are four types of fasts:
- Obligatory (wajib) fasts, like fasts in the holy month of Ramadan;
- Supererogatory (mustahab) fasts, like fasts in the months of Rajab and Sha’ban;
- Reprehensible (makruh) fasts, like fasting on the day of Ashura;
- Prohibited (haram) fasts, like fasting on the day of Eid Fitr (the first of Shawal) or Eid al-Adha (the tenth of Zel-Hajja).
3. Obligatory (wajib) fasts
Obligatory (wajib) fasts consist of:
- Those of the month of Ramadan.
- Qada’ (carrying out or fulfilling a missed duty at a later time) of Ramadan fasts.
- The expiatory fasts performed as kaffarah (obligatory donation made to make up for a missed duty as expiation).
- Qada’ of parents’ fasts.
- Supererogatory (mustahab) fasts that become obligatory (wajib) due to a vow, an oath, or a swear.
- Fast on the third day of I’tikaf (an Islamic practice consisting of a period of staying in a mosque for a certain number of days, devoting oneself to worship).
- The fast replacing the sacrifice during the ceremony of Hajj (If a person performing Hajj (haji) cannot afford to make a sacrifice or cannot borrow money to sacrifice, he must perform ten fasts instead: three of which he performs during Hajj and the seven remaining when he returns home).
Fasting on the day of Ashura:
4. Is it allowed to fast on the day of Ashura?
Answer: It is reprehensible (makruh).
Fast of silence:
5. I have heard that performing fasts of silence is prohibited (haram), but some say it is permissible (halal) in case it is a vow. Is this true?
Answer: it is prohibited (haram).
Fast performed by someone’s wife and children:
6. One of the prohibited fasts is the fast performed by the wife if it causes trouble for fulfilling the rights of the husband, and the fast performed by offspring if it causes trouble or annoyance for the parents. Now, the question is, does this rule only apply to mustahab fasts, or does it also include wajib (obligatory) fasts for a person capable of performing it?
Answer: This is not applicable to wajib fasts.
Conditions that make fasting obligatory (wajib)
7. Fasting is wajib for individuals who are in the following conditions:
- Adulthood
- Sanity
- Physical strength
- Conscious: not in an unconscious state
- Not traveling
- Not in a state of hayd (menstruation) or nifas (Postpartum period): fasting is not valid for women during menstruation and puerperal bleeding
- When fasting is not harmful to one’s health
- When fasting is not extremely difficult
Difficulty in observing fasts
Inability for fasting during early years of taklif
8. For a girl who has reached the age of taklif (who has nine lunar years or more and must observe the religious obligations) but is not able to fast due to her physical weakness, and cannot perform their qada’ (that must be made up for at a later time) till the next Ramadan, what duty applies to her?
Answer: Inability for fasting and doing qada’ due to weakness, and lack of physical strength, does not ruin the obligation for doing qada’. Qada’ of the missed fasts during Ramadan remain obligatory (wajib) for her to perform when she has the ability.
9. What is the duty of girls who have just reached the age of taklif (responsibility) but fasting is hard on them? Is the age of religious adulthood for girls at 9 lunar years complete?
Answer: As per consensus, religious adulthood of young girls occurs by completion of 9 lunar years. By this time, fasting is obligatory for them, and not fasting for some minor excuse is not allowed. However, if fasting is harmful to their health, or tolerating fasts causes extreme difficulty for them, they are allowed to break their fast.
10. If a 9-year-old girl who is obliged to fast due to religious obligation, but breaks her fast for the reason that fasting is too difficult for her, is it obligatory for her to do the qada’ of the fast (do the missed fast at a later time)?
Answer: Qada’ of the fasts of Ramadan that she has broken is obligatory for her.
11. I haven’t performed my fasts since religious adulthood (taklif) until the age of 12, due to physical weakness, what is my duty now?
Answer: It is obligatory to do qada’, of the fasts of Ramadan, missed since the age of taklif. In addition, if Ramadan fasts were broken deliberately, by your choice, and without valid excuses, kaffarah is also obligatory for you.
12. For a person who hasn’t carried out fasts of Ramadan at the early years of taklif[1], due to weakness and lack of physical strength, is only qada’ obligatory or both qada’ and kaffarah obligatory?
Answer: If they didn’t fast while fasting wasn’t extremely difficult for them, and they broke their fasts deliberately, in addition to qada’, kaffarah is also obligatory. However, if they didn’t fast because they feared that fasting could make them ill, only qada’ of the fasts are obligatory.
Breaking fasts due to difficulty during the day
13. If a person has a job (and cannot quit it) which makes fasting excessively difficult for him/her due to the hunger and thirst, and also very young individuals, for whom fasting is too difficult, can they break their fast from early morning, or do they have a different duty?
Answer: For the mentioned situations, they can break their fast when they find fasting too difficult, and they must perform qada’ for that day’s fast later.
Things that invalidate fasts:
14. There are 9 things that invalidate fasts [from which it is obligatory to refrain during the fast, from dawn to sunset]:
1. Eating and drinking.
2. Sexual intercourse.
3. Deliberately causing seminal emission (masturbation; al-’istimna’).
4. Deliberately ascribing something falsely to God or the Messenger (p.b.u.h.) or Ahlulbait (a.s.) (i.e. if he speaks or writes that God or the Messenger said one thing or ordered another thing while he is aware that it is not true).
5. Inhaling a dense cloud of suspended dust (when it reaches the throat).
6. Fully submerging the head under water.
7. Deliberately remaining in the state of janabah or hayd (menstruation) or nifas (Postpartum period) until the dawn.
8. Enema using fluid.
9. Deliberately vomiting.
The nine elements will be elaborated with details and related duties in the following questions. [elements 4 to 6 invalidate fasts based on obligatory precautionary measures (wajib Ihtiyat)].
Eating and Drinking
Criteria for eating and drinking
15. If a fasting person eats or drinks deliberately and knowingly, their fast will be invalid; either if the thing they eat or drink is an edible, common food or drink or if it is inedible, like paper, cloth, or similar materials; either if it is in big or small amount, like a drop of water or a tiny bread crumb.
Breaking fasts for the sake of a match
16. Is it possible to break one’s fast because of having a soccer match and extreme hunger and thirst during the match?
Answer: the situation described in the question is not a valid excuse for breaking the fast.
Breaking the fast due to hunger and thirst
17. If someone who fasts during Ramadan, does not get up for, thus misses the meal before dawn (suhoor), and as a result cannot continue the fast till sunset-- that is, they have an incident during the day and break the fast-- is kaffarah obligatory for them?
Answer: If they continue the fast until they find fasting extremely difficult for hunger and thirst and then break it, only qada’ is obligatory and no kaffarah is needed.
Eating after dawn (after call for morning prayer)
18. If in Ramadan we get up for eating the meal before dawn, and later we learn that we had eaten after dawn, is our fast valid or do we have to perform qada’?
Answer: If they had investigated and ate based on the knowledge that it wasn’t dawn yet, their fast is valid, and there is no need to do qada’.
19. Since nowadays we use clocks for managing daily work, and in cities, because of high buildings, it is impossible to view the rising of fajr (dawn), if someone, relying on their clock which shows the hour 4, starts to eat, and then later learns that the clock had run out of batteries and it was actually 4:15; is the fast of that person valid?
Also if someone makes a mistake in reading the clock and eats after dawn, and understands the mistake later, is their fast valid?
Answer: In both cases, if relying on the clock, they were sure that it was still night, and later they learn it wasn’t true, their fasts are valid in Ramadan.
20. If someone learns it is already past dawn while eating, what is their duty?
Answer: They must take the food out of their mouth, and if they swallow it deliberately, their fast is not valid.
Directive concerning substances that return to mouth from stomach during fasting hours
21. Sometimes acid reflux might happen, that is sour substances come to the mouth from the stomach. Now if a fasting person has acid reflux, and swallows the substances deliberately or by oversight, what directive applies to their fast?
Answer: If after the substance reached their mouth, they swallow it deliberately, their fast is no longer valid; but by oversight, it does not invalidate the fast.
Swallowing phlegm of head or chest during fasting hours
22. When I had a flu, I had some phlegm in my mouth that I swallowed, instead of throwing away; is my fast valid or no?
During Ramadan I was staying with some relatives; and because of embarrassment and shyness, I had to do tayammum (dry ablution) in place of an obligatory ghusl, and I didn’t do ghusl until near noon. This was repeated a few days. Are my fasts during those days valid or no?
Answer: Swallowing phlegm of head or chest does not invalidate fasts, but if it has reached the mouth area, based on obligatory precautionary measures (wajib Ihtiyat), one must avoid swallowing it. Not doing ghusl of janabat by dawn of the day one wants to fast and do tayammum instead, if done with a valid excuse, or if done in the last minutes when there is not enough time for ghusl, does not invalidate fasts and fasts with tayammum are valid. Otherwise, fasts on those days are not valid.
[1] the age when one is religiously obliged to observe the rules of Islam
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