Situation Permitted To Break The Fast

Situation Permitted To Break The Fast

Al-Hussani

  

In the name of Allāh, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful;

All the praise and Thanks are due to Allāh, the Lord of the al-ā’lamīn. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allāh, and that Muhammad, sallallāhu alayhi wa sallam, is His Messenger.

The following are the major situations which permit a person to break the fast of Ramadhan:

1. Illness.

2. Travel.

It is allowed for those who are (not chronically) ill and for travelers to break their fasts during Ramadhan, but they must make up the days they missed.

Allah Says: "[Fasting for] a limited number of days. So whoever among you is ill or on a journey [during them]-then an equal number of days [are to be made up]..." [Quran 2:184]

A journey according to the Syari’ah is any journey that takes you away from your city of residence, a minimum of 48 miles or 80 kilometers. The journey must be for a good cause. It is a sin to travel in Ramadhan in order to avoid fasting. A Muslim should try to change his or her plans during Ramadhan to be able to fast and should not travel unless it is necessary. The traveler who misses the fasts of Ramadhan must make up those missed days later as soon as possible after Ramadhan.

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.

As for the elderly person who has reached an old age, at which he doesn't have the strength to fast, he may break the fast and give charity for every day that he did not fast.

Ibn ‘Abbas said: "It was permitted for the very elderly man (or woman) to feed a poor person for every day (that he did not fast), and he did not have to make up for the days." [Ad-Daraqutni and Al-Hakim]

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 later (qadha') for every day missed. However, those for whom the above situation persists continuously all around the year (pregnant and nursing women, according to many ulama’) should instead pay a kaffarah for every day missed.

[srikandeh]