Fasting Ramadan

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah,
the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

The month of the fast is the best of months, and it
is one of the distinctive features of this Community
(Ummah); that is, as now practiced, a fact not
contradicted by the word of Allah Most High,

يَأيّهَا الّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كُمَا
كُتِبَ عَلَى الذِّينَ مِن قَنْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ
O you who believe! Observing As- Saum
(the fasting) is prescribed for you as it was
prescribed for those before you, that you
may become Al- Muttaqun (the pious)
(Surah Al- Baqarah  2:183)

Fasting Ramadan is one of the pillars of Islam by
scholarly consensus (ijma). Bukhari and Muslim
relate that the Nabi  صلى الله عليه وسلم said,

''Islam is built upon five : testifying there is no god
but Allah and that Muhammad is the messenger of
Allah, performing the Prayer, giving Zakat, making
the Pilgrimage to the House (Kaaba), and fasting
Ramadan.''

Who Must Fast Ramadan

Fasting Ramadan is obligatory for :

(a) every Muslim (male or female) who :

(b) has reached puberty ;

(c) is sane ;

(d) is capable of bearing the fast ;

(e) and if female, is not in the period of menstruation
(haiz) or postnatal bleeding (nifas).

Those Not Obliged To Fast Ramadan

(1) a non-Muslim (meaning that we do not ask him to,
nor would it be valid if he did (though he is punished
in the next life for not doing so) ;

(2) a child ;

(3) someone insane ;

(4) or someone whom fasting exhausts because of
advanced years or having an illness from which he
is unlikely to recover.

None of the above-mentioned is obliged to fast or to
make up missed fast-days, though someone who misses
a fast because of above must give one مُد (mudh- about
600g) of food for each fast-day he misses.

The following are not required to fast, though they are
obliged to make up fast-days missed (making up,
according to our school (shafi), meaning that one fasts
a single day for each obligatory fast-day missed):

(1) those who are ill (the illness that permits not fasting
being that which fasting would worsen, delay recovery
from, or cause one considerable harm with; the same
dispensation applying to someone who needs to take
medicine during the day that breaks the fast and that
he can not delay taking until night);

(2) those who are travelling;

(3) a person who has left Islam (murtadd);

(4) or a woman who is in her menses (haiz) or
period of postnatal bleeding (nifas).

If the ill person or traveller take it upon themselves to
fast, it is valid, though a fast by someone who has left
Islam, or a woman in haiz or nifas is not valid.

when not fasting on a day of Ramadan, if a non-Muslim
becomes a Muslim, an insane person regains his sanity,
or a child reaches puberty, it is recommended but not
obligatory that they fast the rest of that day and make
up the fast later. A child who reaches puberty while
fasting on a day of Ramadan is obliged to fast the rest
of the day, and is recommended to make it up.

A woman whose period ends during a day of Ramadan
is recommended to fast the rest of the day and is obliged
to make up the fast (and the fast-days prior to it missed
during her period or nifas).

Extracts from
Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri's
Reliance of the Traveller 
Tran.. by Nuh Ha Mim Keller
(Shafi'i Fiqh)

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