Fasting: What breaks and what does not break the fast

Fasting: What breaks and what does not break the fast

PERMITED ACTS :

  • Pouring water over oneself and submerging oneself in water.
  • Applying kohl, eye-drops, or anything else to the eyes.
  • Kissing, provided that one has self-control.
  • Rinsing the mouth and nose, without swallowing any water.
  • Tasting a liquid, food, or something else that one wants to buy. However, anything edible must not be swallowed.
  • Chewing gum (unlike something that has no sweetness or fragrance) is disliked but does not invalidate the fast.
  • Eating, drinking, or having sexual intercourse during the night until dawn.
  • If one eats due to forgetfulness, the day does not have to be made up later or expiated.
  • Performing ghusl before dawn is not required, but it is advisable to be pure before fasting.
  • If a woman’s menstrual or post-childbirth bleeding stops during the night, she can delay ghusl until the morning and still fasts. However, she must perform ghusl before the dawn prayer.
  • Those who are fasting can use a tooth stick or a brush to clean their teeth. It does not matter if this is done at the beginning or at the end of the day.
  • Smelling perfumes.
  • Swallowing anything wet with saliva remaining in the mouth after rising.
  • Swallowing only a few drops of tears and sweat, the taste of which one does not feel.
  • Eating anything edible remaining between teeth and which is smaller than a chickpea.
  • Anything that is inedible and enters the mouth without intention (e.g., smoke, dust, and the taste of medicine put on teeth) does not invalidate the fast.
  • Kissing, touching, and stroking the opposite sex, provided that no ejaculation occurs, as well as any sexual activity that does not result in ejaculation. Any ejaculation that is the result of looking and thinking does not invalidate the fast.
  • Having a wet dream during the day or any ejaculation of seminal fluid.

FORBIDDEN ACTS REQUIRING A MAKE-UP DAY

  • Eating due to a mistake or coercion.
  • Swallowing the blood more than the saliva with which it is mixed and the taste of which one feels.
  • Swallowing more than a few drops of tears and sweat the taste of which one feels.
  • Removing from the mouth anything edible that remains between the teeth and which is greater than a chickpea, and then eating it.
  • Vomiting a mouthful. Anything less and which goes back into the stomach does not invalidate the fast. However, if one intentionally takes it back, the fast is broken.
  • Ejaculation that occurs with pleasure by kissing, touching, and masturbation.
  • Menses and post-childbirth bleeding, even if either begins just before sunset.
  • If one eats, drinks, or has intercourse, thinking that the sun has set or that fajr has not occurred.
  • Any injections, whether for feeding or for medicinal purposes. It does not matter if the injection was intravenous or underneath the skin, or whether what was injected reaches the stomach.
  • Any drink or medicine that passes through throat or nose. However, water that passes through the ears is allowed.
  • Any fluid going into body through the rectum.

ACTS THAT INVALIDATE THE FAST AND REQUIRE A MAKE-UP DAY AND EXPIATION

  • Intentional eating, drinking, and having sexual intercourse during the day require making up the day and an expiation. Expiation is defined as freeing a slave if one can do so; if the person has no slaves or cannot free one for a valid reason, he or she must fast for 60 consecutive days; if one cannot do so, he or she must feed a poor person for 60 days or 60 poor people for one day with meals that are similar to what one would eat at home.
  • Most scholars say that both men and women have to perform acts of expiation if they intentionally have sexual intercourse during the day even if they had intended to fast on that day. If they engaged in it out of forgetfulness, coercion, or having no intention to fast, they do not have to perform any act of expiation. If the woman was raped or coerced by the man, only the man has to make an act of expiation.
  • All scholars agree that people who intentionally broke the fast and made expiation, and then broke it again in a way that requires another expiation, they must perform another act of expiation. Similarly, they all agree that if people break the fast twice during a day, before performing the expiation for the first act, they need to perform only one act of expiation. If people break their fast and then repeat it during the same Ramadan without expiation, they only have to make expiation one time. The reason for this is because there is a punishment for acts that are repeated, and if the expiation or punishment is not carried out, all of these acts are combined into one.
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