Ramadan in Focus- Part 5

O you who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you in order that you might learn piety . . . . The month of Ramadan is that wherein was revealed the Qur’an, as a guidance to mankind, and clear proofs of the guidance, and the Criterion. So, whoever among you witnesses the month should fast.” Quran [2:183, 185]

 

THINGS DISLIKED WHILE FASTING

• To chew gum, rubber, plastic items or other such things (F: which are chewed, but not swallowed, and nothing reaches the stomach, for otherwise the fast would be broken).
• To taste any article of food or drink and spit it out (F: without anything being swallowed). If a woman has a very ill tempered husband, it is permissible for her to taste the food, provided it does not go down her throat.
• To collect one’s saliva in the mouth and then to swallow it, trying to quench thirst.
• To delay a bath that has become obligatory intentionally until after fajr time.
• To use paste or tooth powder to clean one’s teeth. It is permitted to use a miswak of any permissible fresh branch or root (tooth stick). [If one wishes to use toothpaste, one should brush one’s teeth before the fast begins.]
• To complain of hunger and thirst.
• To take the water too much up the nostrils when cleaning the nose.
• To gargle more than necessary (f: because if any water goes down the throat, even accidentally, the fast is invalidated).
• To quarrel, argue, use filthy or indecent words.
• To backbite, tell a lie and swear are sinful acts even when one is not fasting. Therefore they become even worse when fasting.

THINGS THAT BREAK ONE’S FAST BUT REQUIRE ONLY A MAKEUP

• Anything put by force into the mouth of a fasting person.
• Water going down the throat whilst gargling, (whilst being conscious of one’s fast).
  
• To vomit mouthful intentionally or to return vomit down the throat.
• Intentionally swallowing a pebble, piece of paper or any item that is not used as food or medicine.
• Swallowing something edible, equal to or bigger than a grain of gram which was stuck between the teeth. However if it is first taken out of the mouth and swallowed, it will break the fast whether it is smaller or bigger than the size of a gram.
• Dripping oil into the ear canal (F: such that it goes beyond the ear drum).
• Inhaling snuff into the nostrils.
• Swallowing the blood from the gums if the color of the blood is more than the saliva with which it is mixed.

 THINGS THAT MAKE BOTH MAKEUP AND EXPIATION NECESSARY (WAJIB)

(Note that this applies only to a current Ramadan fast only)

• Intentionally eating, drinking or breaking the fast in any other manner, such as smoking, without a valid reason (f: that is, deliberately, while aware) will make both qada and kaffara necessary (F: unless there is a legal excuse that wards off the necessity of expiation, such as it not being a complete offense, such as in the case of ejaculation through any means other than actual intercourse).
• Applying kohl (antimony or surma) into the eye or rubbing oil on the head and then, thinking that the fast is broken, to eat and drink intentionally.
• To drink any kind of medicine intentionally (when one is not seriously sick).

THINGS THAT DO NOT BREAK THE FAST

• To eat and drink something unintentionally.
• A mosquito, fly or any other object going down the throat unintentionally.
• Water entering the ears.
• Dust or dirt going down the throat.
• Swallowing one’s own saliva.
• Taking an injection.
• Applying of surma (kuhl: antimony) into the eyes.
• Taking a bath to keep cool.
• Rubbing oil onto the body or hair.
• To vomit unintentionally.
• Applying itr or perfume. It is not permitted to inhale the smoke of loban or agar batti whilst fasting. It is also not permitted to smoke cigarettes or inhale its smoke.
• Brushing the teeth without tooth paste or powder, e.g., using a miswak, etc.
• A dream which makes ghusl wajib (necessary) does not break the fast.

 

PEOPLE EXEMPTED FROM FASTING IN RAMADAN

• Sick people when their health is likely to be badly affected by fasting. (F: This needs to be established by reasonable surety of one’s actual or effective inability through manifest signs, relevant past experience, or the medical advice of a qualified and upright Muslim doctor.) They should make up the loss, a day for a day, when they recover after Ramadan.
• A traveler (one who is undertaking a journey of more than 77 kms (48 miles) and does not intend staying more than 14 days at his destination). However, it is better for him to fast in Ramadan than to fast later, provided the journey is not a demanding one.
• If it is feared that hunger or thirst will lead (F: during the fast) to death (F: or harm, by reasonable surety, as described above), it is permitted to break one’s fast.
• It is necessary (wajib) to makeup of a nafl fast that was broken before completing it.

THE EXPIATORY PAYMENT (FIDYA) FOR FASTING

A very old person who does not have the strength to fast or a very sickly or diseased person who has

no hope of recovering after Ramadan must make an expiatory payment for each fast missed in Ramadan.

The expiatory payment for a fast is similar to that of a missed obligatory or necessary prayer:

To give 3½ lbs (approx. 1.6 kg) of wheat or 7 lbs (approx. 3.2 kg) of barley.

Or the equivalent of the above in cash or kind.

If, however, an old or sick person gains strength or recovers after Ramadan, he must keep the missed number of fasts and whatever was given as fidya will be a reward for him from Allah Most High.

No one is allowed to fast for another (sick or fit) person. [Hajj can be made for another person (F: under certain conditions), but one it is not valid to pray or fast for another person.]

(All of the information provided in this post were taken from : http://islamqa.org/hanafi/qibla-hanafi/35333)