The Rulings of Ramadan: A Comprehensive Guideline

8. THINGS WHICH INVALIDATE THE FAST

Question: In what situation is one permitted to break the fast of Ramadaan?

Answer:

The following are the major situations which permit a person to break the fast of Ramadaan:
1. Illness.
2. Travel.
3. Pregnancy in which a woman feels that fasting is hard on her or is threatening to her or her child's welfare.
4. Baby-nursing (breast feeding), when the woman has similar concerns to those in (3) above.
5. Old age.
6. Being forced during the day to exert a hard physical labour which is judged threatening to the person's well being should he continue to fast.

A person belonging to any of the above groups will have to fast a day later (make qadaa) for every day missed. However, those for whom the above situation persists continuously all around the year (pregnant and nursing women, according to many ulamaa) should instead pay a ransom for every day missed.

Question: In which situations is the fast involuntarily disrupted?

Answer:

The fast is disrupted (and there is no point or reward in continuing to fast) when a woman sees the blood caused by either of:
1. Menstruation.
2. Labour or childbirth.

The woman in this case will have to fast a day later (make Qadaa) for every day (or part of day) that she missed.

Question: What acts invalidate the fast?

Answer:

The following acts, when done knowingly and deliberately in the days of Ramadaan, will invalidate the fast. In addition to being considered major sins in Islaam, a person committing one of these acts will have to continue fasting the rest of the day that he committed it, and he is also required to take certain measures of reconciliations as indicated below.

1. Voluntary vomiting.
2. Intending to stop fasting at any moment during the day of fast.
3. Stimulating oneself, without copulation, to the point of ejaculation.

A person committing one of the above acts, (I) through (3), will have to make up (Qadaa) for every day thus invalidated.
4. Sexual Intercourse.

Any fast thus invalidated will require both the Qadaa (make up for that day) as well as a material atonement (Kaffaarah, which corresponds to freeing a slave, fasting two consecutive months or feeding sixty people, where these three alternatives should be expiated in the same order mentioned in the Hadeeth).

5. Deliberately eating, drinking, smoking or letting any material into the stomach.

Contrary to widespread misconception, a day thus invalidated cannot be atoned in the same way as intercourse; it cannot even be atoned by even fasting the entire life. Thus, in addition to the qadaa (making up by fasting a day for the missed day), the only way to atone such an act would be true sincere repentance and strong determination never to do it again.

Question. What acts do not invalidate the fast, even though many people think they do?

Answer:

Contrary to many misconceptions, there is no valid evidence that any of the following acts invalidate the fast (even though some of them might reduce the rewards of fasting).

1. Sexual foreplay, even if it led to some pre-seminal fluid secretions.
2. Involuntary ejaculations, like wet dreams.
3. Medically required injections, eye and ear drops and medications placed on wounds.
4. Nose or throat bleeding, or bleeding caused by pulling a tooth.
5. Involuntary vomiting.
6. Excessive washing of the nose and mouth during wudoo.
7. Swallowing one's own saliva.
8. Tasting food (when cooking), without swallowing.
9. Taking a bath or swimming.
10. Delaying the purifying ghusl (bath) of janaabah (impurity due to sexual intercourse), wet dream or menstruation till after fajr (dawn) time.
11. Involuntary, forced or forgetful eating or drinking.
12. Using siwaak (toothbrush without tooth paste).
13. Using eye-shadows (kuhl), and applying or smelling perfumes.
14. Eating before Maghrib (sunset) or after fajr (dawn) because of mistake in time recognition.
15. Drawing out blood from the body.