The fourth pillar
Masjid poster
Ramaḍān
رمضانরমাদান
Scholarly review: pending
This text comes from the Sabīl print library. Its scholarly review is still in progress; every item will carry its reviewers’ names and the date once two scholars have signed it.
The Month of Fasting
شَهْرُ رَمَضَان
Shahru ramaḍān
What breaks the fast
Eating or drinking deliberately
Intercourse — and this alone carries an expiation
Deliberately causing vomiting
Menstrual or post-natal bleeding, at any hour
Leaving Islam
One who eats or drinks forgetting has no fault — let him complete his fast; it is Allah who fed him.
What does not break it
Rinsing the mouth and nose, without exaggeration
Bathing, swimming, cooling the body with water
Unintended vomiting
Blood taken for a test; injections that do not nourish
Tasting food on the tongue without swallowing
Waking in a state of janābah — wash and continue
Using the siwāk or a toothbrush at any hour of the day
Who does not fast
Case
Owed
Illness, expected to pass
Make up the days
Travel
Make up the days
Menstruation, post-natal
Make up the days
Pregnancy, nursing
Make up, or feed
Old age, lasting illness
Feed one poor person a day
Q 2:184–185. Missed days are made up before the next Ramaḍān.
Making up & expiation
Missed days may be made up singly or together, at any time before the next Ramaḍān.
Breaking a fast by intercourse carries an expiation: freeing a slave, or fasting two consecutive months, or feeding sixty poor people.
Bukhārī, Muslim · ṣaḥīḥ
Zakāt al-fiṭr
One ṣā‘ of staple food — roughly 2.5 to 3 kg — for every member of the household, young and old. Given before the ‘Īd prayer, so the poor are not left asking on the day.
Bukhārī, Muslim · ṣaḥīḥ
The day, in order
01Suḥūr — eat before dawn
Delay it until near Fajr. There is blessing in it, though it be only a sip of water. The intention is made in the heart during the night.
Bukhārī, Muslim · ṣaḥīḥ
02Fajr — the fast begins
From the true dawn until sunset. Eating stops at the adhān of Fajr, not before it. If the call finds the vessel in your hand, he ﷺ said, finish what is in it.
Abū Dāwūd · ḥasan
03Through the day — guard the tongue
إِنِّي صَائِمٌ
Innī ṣā’im
If someone abuses you or picks a quarrel, say innī ṣā’im — I am fasting. Whoever does not leave false speech, Allah has no need of his leaving food and drink.
Bukhārī · ṣaḥīḥ
04Maghrib — break the fast at once
ذَهَبَ الظَّمَأُ، وَابْتَلَّتِ الْعُرُوقُ، وَثَبَتَ الْأَجْرُ إِنْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ
Dhahabaẓ-ẓama’, wa-btallatil-‘urūq, wa thabatal-ajru in shā’allāh
The thirst is gone, the veins are moistened, and the reward is certain, if Allah wills. Fresh dates, or dried, or water. The supplication of the fasting one at breaking is not turned back.
Abū Dāwūd · ḥasan; Tirmidhī · ḥasan
05‘Ishā’, then Tarāwīḥ
Whoever stands the night of Ramaḍān in faith, seeking reward, is forgiven what has preceded of his sin. Prayed in the masjid or at home; the number is not fixed, the length is.
Bukhārī, Muslim · ṣaḥīḥ
06The last ten nights
اللَّهُمَّ إِنَّكَ عَفُوٌّ تُحِبُّ الْعَفْوَ فَاعْفُ عَنِّي
Allāhumma innaka ‘afuwwun tuḥibbul-‘afwa fa-‘fu ‘annī
O Allah, You are pardoning and love to pardon, so pardon me. Seek Laylat al-Qadr in the odd nights — better than a thousand months. He ﷺ would tighten his belt, wake his family, and stay awake.
Tirmidhī · ṣaḥīḥ; Q 97:3
07I‘tikāf — retreat in the masjid
He ﷺ kept to the masjid for the last ten nights every year, and in the year he died, for twenty. One enters before sunset on the twentieth and leaves at the sunset that ends the month.
He leaves only for necessity. A day, or a night, or an hour of it is still a retreat.
Bukhārī, Muslim · ṣaḥīḥ
08‘Īd al-Fiṭr — the month ends
اللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ، اللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ، لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ، وَاللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ، اللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ، وَلِلَّهِ الْحَمْدُ
Allāhu akbar, Allāhu akbar, lā ilāha illallāh, wallāhu akbar, Allāhu akbar, wa lillāhil-ḥamd
Shown whole, from Dhul-Ḥijjah & the ‘Īds. In print this text is set shorter.
Fasting on the day of ‘Īd is forbidden. Eat an odd number of dates before going out, wash, wear your best, and say the takbīr on the way. Go by one road and return by another, as he ﷺ did.
Bukhārī · ṣaḥīḥ
For the fasting one there are two joys — a joy when he breaks his fast, and a joy when he meets his Lord.
Bukhārī, Muslim · ṣaḥīḥ
Fasting elsewhere
Six days of Shawwāl after Ramaḍān are as a fast of the whole year. The Day of ‘Arafah expiates two years; ‘Āshūrā’ one. Mondays and Thursdays, and the three white days of each month — the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth.
Muslim · ṣaḥīḥ.
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