{"history":[],"article":{"id":"c1edf14e-f526-4d6a-bf3f-dc45c1838613","title":"Fasting during Ramadan","slug":"fasting-during-ramadan","content":":::summary\n:::\n\n# \nDuring the entire month of [Ramadan](https://bliptext.com/articles/ramadan), Muslims are obligated to fast (, [sawm](https://bliptext.com/articles/sawm); [Persian](https://bliptext.com/articles/persian-language): روزہ, rozeh), every day from dawn to sunset.\n[Fasting](https://bliptext.com/articles/fasting) requires the abstinence from sex, food, drinking, and smoking.\nFasting the month of Ramadān was made obligatory (wājib) during the month of [Sha'ban](https://bliptext.com/articles/sha-ban), in the second year after the Muslims migrated from [Mecca](https://bliptext.com/articles/mecca) to [Medina](https://bliptext.com/articles/medina).\nFasting for the month of Ramadan is one of the [Five Pillars of Islam](https://bliptext.com/articles/five-pillars-of-islam).\n# [During the break of fasting (Iftar) food vendors selling delicacies in a bazaar in Bangladesh | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Iftar///during///Ramadan.jpg]\n\n# The Qur'an\nFasting during the month of Ramadan is specifically mentioned in four verses of the [Qur'an](https://bliptext.com/articles/qur-an):\nO you who believe!\nFasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that you may (learn) self-restraint.\n(Fasting) for a fixed number of days; but if any of you is ill, or on a journey, the prescribed number (Should be made up) from days later.\nFor those who can do it (With hardship), is a ransom, the feeding of one that is indigent.\nBut he that will give more, of his own free will,- it is better for him.\nAnd it is better for you that you fast, if you only knew.\nRamadan is the month in which the Quran was revealed as a guide for humanity with clear proofs of guidance and the decisive authority.\nSo whoever is present this month, let them fast.\nBut whoever is ill or on a journey, then let them fast an equal number of days after Ramadan.\nAllah intends ease for you, not hardship, so that you may complete the prescribed period and proclaim the greatness of Allah for guiding you, and perhaps you will be grateful.\nIt has been made permissible for you to be intimate with your wives during the nights preceding the fast.\nYour spouses are a garment for you as you are for them.\nAllah knows that you were deceiving yourselves.\nSo He has accepted your repentance and pardoned you.\nSo now you may be intimate with them and seek what Allah has prescribed for you.\nYou may eat and drink until you see the light of dawn breaking the darkness of night, then complete the fast until nightfall.\nDo not be intimate with your spouses while you are meditating in the mosques.\nThese are the limits set by Allah, so do not exceed them.\nThis is how Allah makes His revelations clear to people, so they may become mindful of Him.\n\n# Prohibitions during Ramadan\nEating, drinking, and sexual activities are not allowed between [dawn](https://bliptext.com/articles/dawn) ([fajr](https://bliptext.com/articles/fajr)), and [sunset](https://bliptext.com/articles/sunset) ([maghrib](https://bliptext.com/articles/maghrib)).\nFasting is considered an act of deeply personal worship in which Muslims seek a raised level of closeness to God.\nIt helps them acknowledge Allah as the source of all sustenance.\nDuring Ramadan, Muslims are also expected to put more effort into following the teachings of Islam by refraining from violence, anger, envy, greed, lust, angry/sarcastic retorts, gossip, and are meant to try to get along with each other better than normal.\nAll obscene and irreligious stimuli are to be avoided as the purity of both thought and action is important.\nThis helps them develop a higher conscience of mindfulness of Allah.\n# [Fast break at Taipei Grand Mosque in Taiwan | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Taipei///Grand///Mosque///-///Fast///Break.JPG]\n\n## Exceptions\nAlthough fasting at Ramadan is fard (obligatory), exceptions are made for persons in particular circumstances.\nFasting during Ramadan is not obligatory for several groups for whom it would be excessively problematic, among them people with medical conditions.\nPre-pubescent children are not required to fast, though some choose to do so, and some small children fast for half a day to train themselves.\nIf puberty is delayed, fasting becomes obligatory for males and females after a certain age.\n[Diabetics](https://bliptext.com/articles/diabetes) and [nursing](https://bliptext.com/articles/breastfeeding) or [pregnant](https://bliptext.com/articles/pregnancy) women are usually not expected to fast.\nAccording to a [hadith](https://bliptext.com/articles/hadith), observing the Ramadan fast is forbidden for [menstruating](https://bliptext.com/articles/menstruation) women.\nOther individuals for whom it is usually considered acceptable not to fast are those in battle, and travellers who either intend to spend more than five days away from home or travel more than 50 miles.\nIf the circumstance preventing fasting is temporary, a person is required to make up for the missed days after the month of Ramadan is over and before the next Ramadan arrives.\nShould the circumstance be permanent or present for an extended amount of time, one may recompense by feeding a needy person for every day missed.\nIf one does not fit into any category of exemption and breaks the fast out of forgetfulness, the fast is still valid.\nIntentionally breaking the fast voids it, and the person must make up for the entire day later.\nOne must either fast for 60 days after Ramadan or feed 60 people in need (according to the Hanafi school) and fast one day extra.\nDuring a 2013 [poliomyelitis](https://bliptext.com/articles/poliomyelitis) [outbreak](https://bliptext.com/articles/poliomyelitis-eradication) in [Somalia](https://bliptext.com/articles/somalia), some groups of aid workers were granted an exemption for the [oral polio vaccine](https://bliptext.com/articles/oral-polio-vaccine).\nOther exemptions include:\n\n# Breaking the fast\nMany [mosques](https://bliptext.com/articles/mosque) will provide [iftar](https://bliptext.com/articles/iftar) (literally: breakfast) meals after sundown for the community to come and end their day's fasting as a whole.\nIt is also common for such meals to take place at Muslim [soup kitchens](https://bliptext.com/articles/soup-kitchen).\nThe fast is broken with a date (when possible) following the tradition of Muhammad, or with water.\n# [Muslims traditionally break the fast with dates (like these on sale in Kuwait City), as was the recorded practice (Sunnah) of Muhammad. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Date-seller.jpg]\n\n# Ramadan Iftar Dua\nRamadan fast is broken by reciting iftar dua:\n\"Allahumma inni laka sumtu wa bika aamantu [wa ‘alayka tawakkaltu]wa ‘ala rizq-ika aftarth Meaning: “Oh Allah, I fasted for You and I believe in You and I break my fast with Your sustenance.”\"\n\n# Health effects\nRamadan fasting is safe for healthy people, provided that overall food and water intake is adequate, but those with medical conditions should seek medical advice if they encounter health problems before or during fasting.\nThe fasting period is usually associated with significant weight loss for both males and females, though the weight usually returns without further lifestyle modifications.\nA review of the literature by an Iranian group suggested fasting during Ramadan might produce [renal injury](https://bliptext.com/articles/renal-injury) in patients with moderate (GFR <60 ml/min) or severe [kidney disease](https://bliptext.com/articles/kidney-disease) but was not injurious to [renal transplant](https://bliptext.com/articles/renal-transplant) patients with good function or most [stone-forming](https://bliptext.com/articles/kidney-stone-disease) patients.\nAlso, it was suggested that Ramadan fasting may increase the risk for [salivary gland](https://bliptext.com/articles/salivary-gland) [inflammation](https://bliptext.com/articles/sialadenitis).\nThe psychological effects of fasting during Ramadan have also been researched.\nIn one study, Ramadan fasters were asked to perform cognitive inhibition tasks during and after Ramadan, assessing their response time and accuracy.\nJust before starting the task, half of the participants were asked a few questions about food (Food-reminded), whereas the other half were asked about ownership at various times (Control).\nResults showed that participants who were reminded of food were slower and less accurate during Ramadan compared to after Ramadan.\nControl participants, however, performed similarly across time.\nThe researchers examined whether performances varied during Ramadan depending on the time of people’s last meal.\nThey found that within the first few hours of their last meal (eight hours), food-reminded people had longer inhibition delays than Control participants, yet after eight hours, the two groups similarly slowed down.\nNonetheless, both groups responded more accurately the longer time had passed since their last meal.\nThis research indicates that (a) cognitive control processes are engaged from the early hour of the fast, and susceptible to manipulation, and (b) after a few hours into the fast, regardless of whether they have been reminded of food or not, people take longer to distinguish between correct and incorrect responses, yet respond more accurately.\n\n# Rulings for a fasting person\nLinguistically, the word fasting in the Arabic language means unconditional 'restraint' (imsak) from any action or speech during any time.\nAccording to the Sacred Law, fasting is the act of:\n

refraining from entering anything into the body cavity;\n

refraining from engaging in sexual activity;\n

refraining from immoral acts such as [backbiting](https://bliptext.com/articles/backbiting);\n

from the time the sun begins to rise to the time the sun sets;

\n\n'Refraining from engaging in sexual activity' includes actual sexual intercourse and [ejaculation](https://bliptext.com/articles/ejaculation) caused by [foreplay](https://bliptext.com/articles/foreplay).\n'Refraining from entering anything into the body cavity' refers to the acts of entering food, drink, or medicine into the body cavity, regardless of whether this is a typical item one would enter into the body cavity or not.\nEntering any of these substances inside the body cavity means that the substance enters into the throat, the intestines, the stomach, or the brain by way of the nose, the throat, the genitals or anus, or open wounds.\n'Whether deliberately or accidentally' excludes forgetful acts of eating, drinking, or sexual activity.\n'From the time the sun begins to rise to the time the sun sets' refers to the true entering of the Fajr time to the entering of the Maghrib time.\n'Accompanied with the intention of fasting' means that one must intend to fast in order to distinguish if one is really performing an act of worship or not when one refrains from eating, drinking, or having sexual intercourse.\nFor example, if one were to merely stay away from food, drink, or sexual activity without an intention to fast, then this fast is not valid and does not count.\n'From individuals who are permitted to fast' means that one must be free from a situation that would prevent the validity of one's fast, such as menstruation or [lochia](https://bliptext.com/articles/lochia) (post-natal bleeding).[Shurunbulali, Maraqi al-Falah; Ala al-Din Abidin, al-Hadiyya al-Alaiyya; Shurunbulali Imdad al-Fattah].\nApart from sexual intercourse either with spouse or anyone, [masturbation](https://bliptext.com/articles/masturbation) is also strictly prohibited while fasting.\nThis act will invariably break the fast, and the person who committed this act will have to repent to Allah and should make up this fast on a later date.\n\n# Sectarian differences\nFor the most part, [Sunnis](https://bliptext.com/articles/sunni-islam) and [Shias](https://bliptext.com/articles/shia-islam) observe Ramadan the same way, but there are some differences.\nFor one, Sunnis break their fast at sunset, once the sun is no longer visible, but there is still light in the sky.\nHowever, for Shias they wait to break after it gets completely dark.\nShia Muslims also observe additional events that Sunnis do not.\nThey [mourn](https://bliptext.com/articles/mourning) for three days (on the 19th, 20th, and 21st) to commemorate Ali, the son in law of Muhammad and first Imam of the Shia, who was [assassinated](https://bliptext.com/articles/assassination) by [Abd al-Rahman ibn Muljam](https://bliptext.com/articles/abd-al-rahman-ibn-muljam).\n[Sufi Muslims](https://bliptext.com/articles/sufism) have some variations on how they observe Ramadan and what it means to them.\nThey follow the same rules when fasting, but they recite extra prayers at [midnight](https://bliptext.com/articles/midnight).\nThe practice they do is called [Dhikr](https://bliptext.com/articles/dhikr), where they chant God’s name 99 times.\nThis is done because they want to show their love for God and seek a personal relationship with God, as opposed to fearing God's wrath.\n# [Muslims praying the night prayers during Ramadan | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Jemaah///salat///tarawih.jpg]\n\n# Eid al-Fitr\nThe [Islamic](https://bliptext.com/articles/islamic) [holiday](https://bliptext.com/articles/holiday) of [Eid al-Fitr](https://bliptext.com/articles/eid-al-fitr) marks the end of the [Islamic](https://bliptext.com/articles/islamic) fasting of the month of Ramadan.","current_revision":null,"created_by":"kACnuQmH5k9Nr5VNVEpVeg7XpvUmMctD","created_at":"2025-01-26T06:54:44.580Z","updated_at":"2025-01-26T06:54:44.580Z","search_vector":"'fast':1 'ramadan':3","search_content":" \n \n\n# \nDuring the entire month of [Ramadan](https://bliptext.com/articles/ramadan), Muslims are obligated to fast (, [sawm](https://bliptext.com/articles/sawm); [Persian](https://bliptext.com/articles/persian-language): روزہ, rozeh), every day from dawn to sunset.\n[Fasting](https://bliptext.com/articles/fasting) requires the abstinence from sex, food, drinking, and smoking.\nFasting the month of Ramadān was made obligatory (wājib) during the month of [Sha'ban](https://bliptext.com/articles/sha-ban), in the second year after the Muslims migrated from [Mecca](https://bliptext.com/articles/mecca) to [Medina](https://bliptext.com/articles/medina).\nFasting for the month of Ramadan is one of the [Five Pillars of Islam](https://bliptext.com/articles/five-pillars-of-islam).\n# [During the break of fasting (Iftar) food vendors selling delicacies in a bazaar in Bangladesh | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Iftar///during///Ramadan.jpg]\n\n# The Qur'an\nFasting during the month of Ramadan is specifically mentioned in four verses of the [Qur'an](https://bliptext.com/articles/qur-an):\nO you who believe!\nFasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that you may (learn) self-restraint.\n(Fasting) for a fixed number of days; but if any of you is ill, or on a journey, the prescribed number (Should be made up) from days later.\nFor those who can do it (With hardship), is a ransom, the feeding of one that is indigent.\nBut he that will give more, of his own free will,- it is better for him.\nAnd it is better for you that you fast, if you only knew.\nRamadan is the month in which the Quran was revealed as a guide for humanity with clear proofs of guidance and the decisive authority.\nSo whoever is present this month, let them fast.\nBut whoever is ill or on a journey, then let them fast an equal number of days after Ramadan.\nAllah intends ease for you, not hardship, so that you may complete the prescribed period and proclaim the greatness of Allah for guiding you, and perhaps you will be grateful.\nIt has been made permissible for you to be intimate with your wives during the nights preceding the fast.\nYour spouses are a garment for you as you are for them.\nAllah knows that you were deceiving yourselves.\nSo He has accepted your repentance and pardoned you.\nSo now you may be intimate with them and seek what Allah has prescribed for you.\nYou may eat and drink until you see the light of dawn breaking the darkness of night, then complete the fast until nightfall.\nDo not be intimate with your spouses while you are meditating in the mosques.\nThese are the limits set by Allah, so do not exceed them.\nThis is how Allah makes His revelations clear to people, so they may become mindful of Him.\n\n# Prohibitions during Ramadan\nEating, drinking, and sexual activities are not allowed between [dawn](https://bliptext.com/articles/dawn) ([fajr](https://bliptext.com/articles/fajr)), and [sunset](https://bliptext.com/articles/sunset) ([maghrib](https://bliptext.com/articles/maghrib)).\nFasting is considered an act of deeply personal worship in which Muslims seek a raised level of closeness to God.\nIt helps them acknowledge Allah as the source of all sustenance.\nDuring Ramadan, Muslims are also expected to put more effort into following the teachings of Islam by refraining from violence, anger, envy, greed, lust, angry/sarcastic retorts, gossip, and are meant to try to get along with each other better than normal.\nAll obscene and irreligious stimuli are to be avoided as the purity of both thought and action is important.\nThis helps them develop a higher conscience of mindfulness of Allah.\n# [Fast break at Taipei Grand Mosque in Taiwan | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Taipei///Grand///Mosque///-///Fast///Break.JPG]\n\n## Exceptions\nAlthough fasting at Ramadan is fard (obligatory), exceptions are made for persons in particular circumstances.\nFasting during Ramadan is not obligatory for several groups for whom it would be excessively problematic, among them people with medical conditions.\nPre-pubescent children are not required to fast, though some choose to do so, and some small children fast for half a day to train themselves.\nIf puberty is delayed, fasting becomes obligatory for males and females after a certain age.\n[Diabetics](https://bliptext.com/articles/diabetes) and [nursing](https://bliptext.com/articles/breastfeeding) or [pregnant](https://bliptext.com/articles/pregnancy) women are usually not expected to fast.\nAccording to a [hadith](https://bliptext.com/articles/hadith), observing the Ramadan fast is forbidden for [menstruating](https://bliptext.com/articles/menstruation) women.\nOther individuals for whom it is usually considered acceptable not to fast are those in battle, and travellers who either intend to spend more than five days away from home or travel more than 50 miles.\nIf the circumstance preventing fasting is temporary, a person is required to make up for the missed days after the month of Ramadan is over and before the next Ramadan arrives.\nShould the circumstance be permanent or present for an extended amount of time, one may recompense by feeding a needy person for every day missed.\nIf one does not fit into any category of exemption and breaks the fast out of forgetfulness, the fast is still valid.\nIntentionally breaking the fast voids it, and the person must make up for the entire day later.\nOne must either fast for 60 days after Ramadan or feed 60 people in need (according to the Hanafi school) and fast one day extra.\nDuring a 2013 [poliomyelitis](https://bliptext.com/articles/poliomyelitis) [outbreak](https://bliptext.com/articles/poliomyelitis-eradication) in [Somalia](https://bliptext.com/articles/somalia), some groups of aid workers were granted an exemption for the [oral polio vaccine](https://bliptext.com/articles/oral-polio-vaccine).\nOther exemptions include:\n\n# Breaking the fast\nMany [mosques](https://bliptext.com/articles/mosque) will provide [iftar](https://bliptext.com/articles/iftar) (literally: breakfast) meals after sundown for the community to come and end their day's fasting as a whole.\nIt is also common for such meals to take place at Muslim [soup kitchens](https://bliptext.com/articles/soup-kitchen).\nThe fast is broken with a date (when possible) following the tradition of Muhammad, or with water.\n# [Muslims traditionally break the fast with dates (like these on sale in Kuwait City), as was the recorded practice (Sunnah) of Muhammad. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Date-seller.jpg]\n\n# Ramadan Iftar Dua\nRamadan fast is broken by reciting iftar dua:\n\"Allahumma inni laka sumtu wa bika aamantu [wa ‘alayka tawakkaltu]wa ‘ala rizq-ika aftarth Meaning: “Oh Allah, I fasted for You and I believe in You and I break my fast with Your sustenance.”\"\n\n# Health effects\nRamadan fasting is safe for healthy people, provided that overall food and water intake is adequate, but those with medical conditions should seek medical advice if they encounter health problems before or during fasting.\nThe fasting period is usually associated with significant weight loss for both males and females, though the weight usually returns without further lifestyle modifications.\nA review of the literature by an Iranian group suggested fasting during Ramadan might produce [renal injury](https://bliptext.com/articles/renal-injury) in patients with moderate (GFR refraining from entering anything into the body cavity;\n \n refraining from engaging in sexual activity;\n \n refraining from immoral acts such as [backbiting](https://bliptext.com/articles/backbiting);\n \n from the time the sun begins to rise to the time the sun sets; \n \n'Refraining from engaging in sexual activity' includes actual sexual intercourse and [ejaculation](https://bliptext.com/articles/ejaculation) caused by [foreplay](https://bliptext.com/articles/foreplay).\n'Refraining from entering anything into the body cavity' refers to the acts of entering food, drink, or medicine into the body cavity, regardless of whether this is a typical item one would enter into the body cavity or not.\nEntering any of these substances inside the body cavity means that the substance enters into the throat, the intestines, the stomach, or the brain by way of the nose, the throat, the genitals or anus, or open wounds.\n'Whether deliberately or accidentally' excludes forgetful acts of eating, drinking, or sexual activity.\n'From the time the sun begins to rise to the time the sun sets' refers to the true entering of the Fajr time to the entering of the Maghrib time.\n'Accompanied with the intention of fasting' means that one must intend to fast in order to distinguish if one is really performing an act of worship or not when one refrains from eating, drinking, or having sexual intercourse.\nFor example, if one were to merely stay away from food, drink, or sexual activity without an intention to fast, then this fast is not valid and does not count.\n'From individuals who are permitted to fast' means that one must be free from a situation that would prevent the validity of one's fast, such as menstruation or [lochia](https://bliptext.com/articles/lochia) (post-natal bleeding).[Shurunbulali, Maraqi al-Falah; Ala al-Din Abidin, al-Hadiyya al-Alaiyya; Shurunbulali Imdad al-Fattah].\nApart from sexual intercourse either with spouse or anyone, [masturbation](https://bliptext.com/articles/masturbation) is also strictly prohibited while fasting.\nThis act will invariably break the fast, and the person who committed this act will have to repent to Allah and should make up this fast on a later date.\n\n# Sectarian differences\nFor the most part, [Sunnis](https://bliptext.com/articles/sunni-islam) and [Shias](https://bliptext.com/articles/shia-islam) observe Ramadan the same way, but there are some differences.\nFor one, Sunnis break their fast at sunset, once the sun is no longer visible, but there is still light in the sky.\nHowever, for Shias they wait to break after it gets completely dark.\nShia Muslims also observe additional events that Sunnis do not.\nThey [mourn](https://bliptext.com/articles/mourning) for three days (on the 19th, 20th, and 21st) to commemorate Ali, the son in law of Muhammad and first Imam of the Shia, who was [assassinated](https://bliptext.com/articles/assassination) by [Abd al-Rahman ibn Muljam](https://bliptext.com/articles/abd-al-rahman-ibn-muljam).\n[Sufi Muslims](https://bliptext.com/articles/sufism) have some variations on how they observe Ramadan and what it means to them.\nThey follow the same rules when fasting, but they recite extra prayers at [midnight](https://bliptext.com/articles/midnight).\nThe practice they do is called [Dhikr](https://bliptext.com/articles/dhikr), where they chant God’s name 99 times.\nThis is done because they want to show their love for God and seek a personal relationship with God, as opposed to fearing God's wrath.\n# [Muslims praying the night prayers during Ramadan | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Jemaah///salat///tarawih.jpg]\n\n# Eid al-Fitr\nThe [Islamic](https://bliptext.com/articles/islamic) [holiday](https://bliptext.com/articles/holiday) of [Eid al-Fitr](https://bliptext.com/articles/eid-al-fitr) marks the end of the [Islamic](https://bliptext.com/articles/islamic) fasting of the month of Ramadan.","revisionCount":0},"hasMore":false,"nextCursor":null}

History