Foreplay with One's Wife While Fasting

question| 1. A man has foreplay with his wife during the day in the month of Ramadan without discharge of semen or intention to ejaculate, does it invalidate his fast?

A: Although this action is makrūh, but his fast is not affected.

Having Sex while Fast is forgotten

question| 2. If someone forgets his fast and has sex, is his fast valid?

answer| If he forgets that he is fasting and has sex, his fast is in order. However, as soon as he remembers, he should terminate it; otherwise his fast is not valid.

Janābah & Menses during the Month of Ramadan

3. In Ramadan, if one becomes junub at night but does not make Ghusl before morning adhān inadvertently, e. g. he becomes junub in sleep and wakes up after morning adhān, his fast is in order.

4. In Ramadan, one whose duty is to make Ghusl before morning adhān but is unable to do so, e. g. as the time is too short or water is harmful for him, he should make tayammum instead of Ghusl.

5. To become junub in sleep during the day does not invalidate the fast.

6. If a woman starts menses, her fast becomes void.

To Delay Ghusl and Make Tayammum in Shortage of Time

question| 7. One becomes junub in sleep and wakes up before morning adhān, can he neglect Ghusl and makes tayammum just before adhān?

answer| If he delays Ghusl until the time becomes too short to make Ghusl, he has committed a sin. In this case, he should make tayammum and his fast is valid.

Fajr Adhān in the Middle of Ghusl

question| 8. One wakes up several minutes before fajr adhān and finds out that he is junub, but adhān starts in the middle of Ghusl, is his fast valid?

answer| If he started Ghusl while he was sure or thought that he had enough time to make Ghusl, it is sufficient and the fast is valid.

To Neglect Ghusl and Remain Junub due to Shyness

question| 9. We live in a cold area where there is no bathroom or any place for bathing. At times, we wake up in a state of janābah before the morning adhān during the blessed month of Ramadan. As it is shameful for youths to get up at midnight before the eyes of the people and to take a bath with the water of a water-skin or a pool, and water is also cold at that time, what is our duty concerning fasting on the next day in such a condition? Is tayammum permissible? And what is the rule if one breaks his fast for not having performed the Ghusl?

answer| The solitary of difficulty or that it is considered as a fault is not a shar‘ī excuse. Rather, one is obligated to take Ghusl in any manner that he can, as long as it does not involve unbearable hardship on the mukallaf or harm. In case it is harmful or unbearably difficult, he can perform tayammum instead and if he does tayammum before the fajr adhān, his fast is valid, and if he does not do tayammum, his fast would be invalid; but it is obligatory for him anyway to refrain from fast invalidators throughout the day.

Not Knowing How to Make Ghusl or Its Being Obligatory

question| 10. A youth was masturbating due to ignorance before, and after, reaching fourteen. As he did not know that discharging semen makes him junub and he is required to do Ghusl for praying and fasting, so he did not perform the Ghusl after the discharge of semen. What is his duty? Is it obligatory for him to perform the Ghusls of this period during which he was masturbating and had seminal discharge? Are all his prayers and fasts which made during this period and until now invalid and should he repeat them?

answer| A single Ghusl of janābah is sufficient for all the past discharges of semen. And it is obligatory for him to make qaḍā’ of all prayers he is certain he offered in the state of janābah. As to the fasts, if he was doing this act at night and did not know he was junub, he would not be obligated to make up these fasts and they would be ruled as valid. But if he knew that he had had a discharge of semen and had been junub without knowing that Ghusl is necessary for the validity of his fast, it would be obligatory for him to make qaḍā’ of the days he had fasted in the state of janābah.

To Fast after an Invalid Ghusl

question| 11. I used to do Ghusl of janābah in this order: first, the right side of the body, then the head, and thirdly the left side. What is my duty in regard to the prayers I offered and the fasts I kept, taking into consideration that I had dealt with this issue with negligence and did not ask and investigate about it?

answer| Ghusl performed in the mentioned manner is invalid and does not remove the state of janābah. Accordingly, the prayers performed with such a Ghusl are invalid and it is obligatory to repeat them as qaḍā’. As for the fasts, they are considered valid as you believed that Ghusl in the said manner was valid and you had not remained junub intentionally.

Kaffārah of Masturbation While Fasting

question| 12. Someone masturbated although he knew that masturbation would invalidate the fast. Does he have to offer the two-fold Kaffārah?

answer| The two-fold Kaffārah is not obligatory for him if he masturbated intentionally and ejaculated, although it is a recommended caution to pay the two-fold Kaffārah.

To Watch Erotic Scenes While Fasting

question|13. Someone who is fasting looks at a sexually arousing scene during the month of Ramadan and becomes junub, does it invalidate his fast?

answer| If he looks in order to ejaculate or he knows that he will become junub if he looks at it, or he is in the habit of that yet looks at it intentionally and becomes junub, then, the rule of intentionally becoming junub applies to him. So he should observe both qaḍā’ and Kaffārah.

To Attribute a Lie to Allah, the Prophets and the Infallible (P. B. U. T)

14. To attribute a lie to Allah, the prophets S. A. W and the infallible A. S, by obligatory caution, invalidates fast although he repents later and declare that it was a lie.

To Attribute a Lie to Fatimah Al-Zahra A. S

question| 15. Is the fast valid if someone attributes a lie to Fatimah Al-Zahra?

answer| Yes, by obligatory caution, it makes fast invalid.

Smoking/Using Drugs

question| 16. Please, give your opinion concerning smoking by a person who is fasting.

answer| By obligatory caution, one has to avoid taking in cigarette smoke and the like while fasting. The same rule is applied to drugs absorbed through nose or put under the tongue.

To Vomit in a State of Nausea

question| 17. A fasting person vomits as he is in a state of nausea, what about his fast?

answer| It is no problem if it occurs involuntarily. If he vomits intentionally, the fast is void.

The Criterion for Validity of a Physician's Forbidding

question| 18. Considering that some physicians are not aware of Islamic laws, should the patient obey a physician’s order if he forbids fasting?

answer| If the physician’s statement makes the patient certain that fasting is harmful for him or he fears of harm in fasting — either on the basis of his statements or on some other reasonable roots — then it is not obligatory for him to fast.

To Use Asthma Spray

question| 19. I am suffering from a lung disease and cannot avoid the medicine, especially when it is aggravated. I use spray as a medicine and in severe situations use some device as well. Can I use medicine while fasting?

answer| If it is used only to open respiratory tract, it does not validate fast.

Infusions/Injections

question| 20. Please explain your view on having injections while fasting during the blessed month of Ramadan?

answer| It is based on obligatory precaution for the fasting person to avoid having any kind of supportive, nutritional or intravenous injections. The same rule is applied to all kinds of intravenous fluid infusions. However, there is no objection to using anesthetic injections and intramuscular ones for treatment purposes.

Blood Transfusion

question| 21. I am suffering from thalassemia and should receive blood during fast. Is my fast valid or I should perform its qaḍā’?

answer| Blood transfusion invalidates fast based on obligatory precaution.

To Bleed While Fasting

question| 22. Does it invalidate my fast if my body is bleeding?

answer| It is not among fast invalidators. However, it is makrūh for a fasting person, if it leads to — in bloodletting, etc. — his weakness.

Dental Restorations/ Extractions for a Fasting Person

question| 23. Do dentistry acts, like extractions, root canal therapy, anesthesia, and fillings, make fast invalid?

answer| If nothing enters the throat, the fast is valid.

To Doubt Swallowing Gum's Blood

question| 24. My gums often bleed and the blood gets mixed with saliva. At times I am not sure whether the saliva that enters my throat is mixed with blood or not. Please tell me what I am supposed to do to overcome this problem.

answer| If the blood from your gums dissolves in the saliva, then the saliva is pure and can be swallowed. If you are not sure whether the saliva is mixed with blood or not, it can still be swallowed without affecting the fast.