Sawm (Fasting): Rules of Ramadan and Voluntary Fasting

Sawm — fasting — is the fourth pillar of Islam. Fasting the month of Ramadan is obligatory on every sane, adult, physically capable Muslim who is not traveling, menstruating, or in post-natal bleeding. The Quran commands it clearly: "O you who believe, fasting has been prescribed upon you as it was prescribed upon those before you, so that you may attain taqwa" (2:183). The month is determined by the sighting of the crescent moon, a matter on which Muslim communities continue to differ in practice.

The fast begins at the true dawn (Fajr) and ends at sunset. During the fast, the believer abstains from eating, drinking, and sexual relations — all three of which are explicitly mentioned in the Quran (2:187). Scholars have also established, based on the Sunnah, that the fast is broken by deliberate vomiting, injections that carry nutritive value, and by menstruation or post-natal bleeding beginning during the day.

The intention (niyyah) for Ramadan fasting must be made each night before the fast begins. The majority of scholars hold that fasting without intention before dawn is invalid, based on the hadith: "Whoever does not make the intention to fast before Fajr has no fast" (Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi). The Shafi'i school requires this intention renewed nightly; the Hanafi school permits a single intention at the beginning of Ramadan to cover the month.

Breaking the fast deliberately without a valid excuse requires expiation (kaffarah): freeing a slave, or fasting sixty consecutive days, or feeding sixty poor people. This applies specifically to deliberate breaking by sexual intercourse. Other deliberate violations require making up the day but do not require kaffarah according to the majority.

Legitimate concessions (rukhsah) include: the sick may break the fast and make up days later; travelers may break the fast and make up days (or maintain the fast if they are able); pregnant and nursing women who fear harm to themselves or their infant may break the fast and make up days, and some scholars say they must also pay fidyah (feeding a poor person for each missed day); the elderly who are permanently unable to fast pay fidyah instead of making up days.

Night prayers (Tarawih) in Ramadan are a confirmed Sunnah, performed after Isha. The Prophet prayed them in congregation for several nights then discontinued to avoid them becoming obligatory (al-Bukhari, Muslim). The number of rakats is a point of scholarly difference: eight (practiced by some based on the Sunnah of the Prophet's own prayer) or twenty (the practice of Umar and the early Muslim community).

Voluntary fasts of high reward include: the six days of Shawwal after Ramadan (combined with Ramadan, they yield the reward of a full year's fasting), Mondays and Thursdays, the ninth and tenth of Muharram (Ashura), and the day of Arafah (9th Dhul-Hijjah) for non-pilgrims, which the Prophet said expiates the sins of the previous and coming year (Muslim). Fasting on the two Eids is forbidden.