Zia Sheikh – FIQH of RAMADAN Workshop
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
In
the
name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most
Merciful.
This workshop today is going to be about
fasting in the month of Ramadan, the rules
and regulations related to it.
And before we proceed, we need to know
what Allah SWT says about fasting in the
Qur'an and what is the purpose behind
fasting.
Allah SWT tells us, O people of Iman,
fasting has been prescribed upon you, meaning it
has been obligated upon you as it was
obligated upon the people before you and the
purpose behind it is so that you can
gain Taqwa, you can get the Taqwa of
Allah SWT.
So Allah SWT tells us in the Qur
'an, O people of Iman, fasting has been
prescribed upon you O people of Iman, fasting
has been prescribed upon you as it was
prescribed upon the people before you and prescribed
here means that made obligatory upon you.
As it was made obligatory upon the people
before you and the purpose is mentioned in
the Ayah, so that you can gain the
Taqwa of Allah SWT.
So the question is, how does a person
get the Taqwa through staying hungry?
How does a person get an awareness of
Allah SWT through becoming hungry?
So there are various reasons for this.
First and foremost, when a person is hungry,
the natural tendency of a person is to
basically turn his attention towards Allah SWT and
his inclination towards worldly things diminishes.
And that is why the Prophet SAW used
to tell the youth of Medina, O
youth, whoever has the ability from amongst you
to get married, he should do so.
And whoever does not have the ability, he
should fast because that will be a protection
for him.
So when a person is fasting, it basically
suppresses his other desires and his attention then
turns towards Allah SWT because his focus is
not on desires anymore.
So through doing that continuously, the person's Taqwa
will increase.
Another way that a person's Taqwa will increase
is that a person consistently and continuously reminds
himself that he is being watched by Allah
SWT for many reasons.
Firstly, when a person is fasting, he is
trying his best to also stay away from
other sins.
So fasting is not just to stay hungry
and thirsty.
It is also to observe good manners, to
guard one's eyes, to guard one's chastity, to
guard one's tongue, to guard one's ears and
so on from doing things which are not
appropriate.
You know, there is a saying that I
heard one day, that it's not a Hadith
or anything, but it's just something thought provoking.
That during the month of Ramadan, what happens
is that things which are already Halal upon
us, meaning eating is Halal, and drinking Halal
things is Halal, permissible, and intimacy with one's
wife is Halal, these things are generally Halal.
But these Halal things basically become Haram.
So these Halal things, when they become Haram,
what do you think of those things which
are already Haram?
That's something to reflect upon.
That it's not just a case of staying
hungry and thirsty, rather it's a whole lifestyle
change that a person has to adopt, and
practicing that for 30 days is supposed to
carry one through the next year.
It's not just for the month of Ramadan,
the spiritual batteries are being recharged, so that
a person, he gets that awareness which carries
him through until the next Ramadan, by which
time a person's, again, Iman becomes weak, and
then he refreshes it by the coming back
of Ramadan.
Also when a person is fasting, he constantly
tells himself that Allah SWT is watching me.
So if he is alone in the house,
and the refrigerator is full of ice-cold
coke, ice-cold soda, there's nothing preventing him
from going to the refrigerator, except the thing
that tells him in his mind that nobody
is here in this house with me, but
Allah SWT is here, Allah SWT is watching
me.
So constantly reminding oneself of that, over 30
days, increases an awareness of Allah SWT, which
subsequently results in the Taqwa developing within oneself.
Another way that a person's Taqwa develops in
Ramadan is that he feels the hunger and
thirst of the people that are less fortunate
than himself.
In other times, you might see pictures of
poor people, starving people, you're not really moved
that much, but when in the month of
Ramadan we are feeling that hunger, we are
feeling that thirst, then a person has a
renewed understanding of the difficulties that people are
facing, not just in the month of Ramadan,
but throughout the whole year.
And in turn, what happens is that a
person then becomes more generous in the month
of Ramadan.
And this was actually the habit of the
Prophet ﷺ also, his generosity increased in the
month of Ramadan.
According to a hadith, the Prophet ﷺ was
the most generous of people, but in Ramadan,
he used to become even more generous, the
most generous, in the month of Ramadan, when
Jibreel used to meet him, and they used
to review the Quran with each other.
And then the hadith goes on to say
that at that point, he used to become
more generous than even the wind.
So the wind, when it blows, it blows
into every nook and cranny, every hole, every
gap.
So the generosity of the Prophet ﷺ didn't
leave anybody untouched.
So the same thing applies to Muslims.
They should become more generous, and they do
become more generous in Ramadan, because of the
fact that they feel the hunger and thirst
of the people that are less fortunate than
themselves.
Also, many people make it a point to
give their zakat in Ramadan too.
So these are the things which are related
to the purpose behind Ramadan, which is the
taqwa.
In addition to that, we should try our
best to increase our recitation of the Quran.
The Prophet ﷺ used to finish one Quran
every Ramadan, and in the last year of
his life, he finished two Qurans.
The easy way to finish the Quran is
to participate in the taraweeh in a place
where the Quran is completed.
Like here, we have the Quran completed in
29 nights.
So if you participate in all of the
taraweeh behind the Imam, then you will get
the complete Quran.
And another way, in addition to that, it's
very simple.
After every Salat, a person just takes five
to ten minutes to recite the Quran in
Ramadan.
In a lunch break, a person is not
going to eat, obviously, so instead of wasting
time chatting idly, a person can take that
time and open up the mushaf and start
reciting the Quran.
So by doing that, very easily a person
can finish the complete Quran twice, once in
taraweeh and once by himself.
So this is what we should try to
be doing, inshallah.
So the fasting is one of the pillars
of Islam, five pillars that we've learnt from
childhood.
Something which is obligatory, if we reject it
and we don't believe in it, that person
becomes a disbeliever.
Very very clear cut, there is ample evidence
for this.
Many people who are neglectful of this fasting,
they say things, they say words of kufr,
they say words of disbelief.
They say that fasting is for poor people,
fasting is for people who cannot afford to
eat.
Why did Allah SWT obligate fasting upon us,
why did He want us to become hungry
or thirsty?
So it's one thing to be lazy about
fasting, a person, he is lazy or he
doesn't have the mental strength and capacity to
fast himself, but he realises that he has
a weakness and he intends to make dawbah
one day, that's one thing.
But to justify his actions or her actions
by making such derogatory statements about Islam and
about fasting, it does take a person out
of Islam.
If a person believes that this thing is
not obligated upon us, and basically anything that
is mujma'alay, that is by consensus known
to be obligatory upon us as an ummah,
if we reject any part of it, that
takes a person out of iman and into
disbelief.
So we need to understand that.
Fasting is obligatory upon every sane adult who
is not travelling and who is not sick.
There are four conditions, a person is an
adult, he is sane, meaning he is not
insane, doesn't have any mental deficiency, he is
an adult, he is not travelling and he
is not sick.
And for the women, not pregnant or menstruating
or in post childbirth bleeding.
All of these reasons, they actually exempt a
person from fasting.
So if you are sane, if you are
adult, if you are not travelling and if
you are not sick, then fasting is obligatory
upon you.
As for the menstruating and postpartum bleeding, it
is again, all of the schools of thought,
all of the four schools of thought agree
that it is not valid for women during
menstruation and bleeding following childbirth, but they do
have to make it up later.
As opposed to Salat, Salat is something that
they don't have to make up later because
the continuous obligation of Salat every single month
basically becomes too much, but fasting, it only
comes around easily throughout the year.
So menstruating or being in postpartum childbirth bleeding,
that also would not obligate the Salat from
you.
Illness is something that does not obligate fasting.
The Hanafi, Hanbali, Shafi'i and Maliki schools
state that if one who is fasting falls
ill or fears the aggravation of his illness,
so he is sick, but he knows that
he can start fasting, but he knows that
his illness will become worse by fasting, so
he fears the aggravation of his illness, or
he feels that there will be a delay
in recovery.
There will be a delay in recovery.
He or she has the option to fast
or refrain.
So they have both the options.
A person can fast, but also the option
is to refrain.
Fasting is not incumbent upon that person.
Where there is a likelihood of death, where
there is a likelihood that a person may
die or lose any of the senses, sometimes
a person, he becomes so hungry that he
loses his faculties, loses his mind, he loses
his eyes.
Something happens to him, for example, a person
who is diabetic, low sugar, high sugar, whatever
happens, a person can go into a coma.
A person can also lose his limbs because
of poor circulation when a person is diabetic.
So losing any one of the senses or
fear of death, it is obligatory upon that
person not to fast.
He is obligated not to fast in that
situation, fear of death or fear of loss
of any of the senses.
This is across all the schools of thought,
all the schools of thought agree upon this.
A woman who is in the final stage
of pregnancy, so this is the time when
the foetus, it needs the most nutrition.
Even in the beginning stages, when there is
a lot of morning sickness etc.
sometimes, and because of that there is a
lack of nutrition, upon the doctor's advice, and
usually the best thing to do is ask
a Muslim doctor who is aware of the
obligation.
A non-Muslim may not be able to
understand the whole concept of fasting and will
not be able to give a decision with
a complete understanding of what Ramadan is about.
So better to ask a Muslim doctor and
take his or her advice related to this.
So the Hanafi, Hanbali, Shafi'i and Maliki,
all four schools of thought say that if
a person, pregnant or nursing woman, fears harm
for her own health or that of her
child, her fasting is valid, if she fasts
it is valid, though it is permissible for
her to refrain from fasting.
And if she opts for not fasting, all
the schools also concur, meaning all four schools
of thought, they agree that she is bound
to perform its missed days later, she has
to perform them later.
Now the question is this, a woman, for
example, she is pregnant, during the course of
pregnancy, the whole month of Ramadan she doesn't
fast.
The next year she is feeding her child
and she refrains from fasting because of the
fact that she is feeding her child, breastfeeding,
and she loses her milk or she doesn't
produce enough milk because of hunger, because of
lack of nutrition.
So again she refrains from fasting, she couldn't
make it up during the year and she
refrains from fasting the next Ramadan also.
And possibly if she is feeding the child
for two years, then even another Ramadan may
come about.
So three years continuously she misses her fasting.
So what is she going to do?
It is pretty much impossible for her to
make up all three years.
So in this case the only option, I
mean if she has the strength to fast
for three continuous months, then that's fine.
But more likely than not she is likely
to be pregnant again after three years.
So this can happen also.
So it becomes just a circle.
So in this case what she should do,
she should give fidya for the missed fast,
she should basically just feed a poor person.
About travelling, all the four schools of thought,
Hanafi, Shafi'i, Hanbali and Maliki say that
the journey of a person should commence before
dawn.
When a person is travelling, his journey should
commence before dawn and the traveller should have
reached the point from where the prescribed prayer
becomes overdue before dawn.
So basically he needs to start travelling before
his fasting starts to be regarded as a
traveller.
Hence if he or she commences the journey
after the setting in of dawn, it is
unlawful for him or her to break the
fast and if he or she breaks it,
it's making up for it will be obligatory
upon him or her without an atonement, without
a kapthara.
So basically he doesn't have to fast for
the 60 days, one fast has to be
made up, but it is permissible for him
to break the fast but one qadha has
to be done.
The Shafi'is add another condition which is
that the traveller should not be the one
who generally travels continuously such as a driver.
So if he is travelling habitually, he is
not entitled to break the fast.
This is according to Imam Shafi'i's school
of thought.
Therefore a traveller who fulfils all the conditions
has the option of fasting or not fasting.
And we find that actually in the hadith,
you will find both riwayat are mentioned.
To some the Prophet ﷺ when he was
asked about fasting while travelling, he used to
tell them it's not good to fast.
To others he used to tell them to
fast.
So basically he used to gauge the people
according to their ability and tell them according
to their ability whether they could fast or
not fast.
So the same thing applies to us.
If a person feels that he can do
the fasting without any harm to his health
and without any problems, then he should fast.
And if he feels that he is going
to have trouble, then he doesn't need to
fast, he can just make it up later.
There is an interesting riwayah.
The Prophet ﷺ was approached by a person
who had a specific dialect.
And this is actually mentioned in a hadith.
That dialect was a dialect of meem.
Which means that every single letter, every single
word, he entered the letter meem inside it.
So the riwayah says that this person came
to the Prophet ﷺ and said, Hal mim
birrim siyamim fim safar?
Which is, the actual wording is, Hal min
birrin siyamun fis safar?
Is it good to fast while on a
journey?
Is it good to fast while on a
journey?
The Prophet ﷺ actually responded back to him
in his own dialect.
Laysa min birrim siyamim fim safar?
Which is, Laysa min birrin siyamun fis safar?
It's not good to fast in the journey.
So this is a riwayah.
And again it tells us how the Prophet
ﷺ was very particular about getting close to
the people who used to come to him,
so much so that he even tried to
talk in their dialect.
So basically the thing is, when a person
is travelling, he doesn't need to fast.
If he does, it is fine.
And obviously in this day and age, when
travelling is not that difficult, you have air
-conditioned cars, air-conditioned buses, air-conditioned planes,
and the journey is not that long, rather
than breaking the fast and making it up
later, he should try to fast.
Now the problem occurs in air travel sometimes,
when a person is on a particularly long
journey.
The question that many people ask is, that
how do you actually measure your fasting when
you are travelling?
Do you do it according to the place
from where you set off from, or do
you do it according to the destination, or
what?
The answer is basically, that wherever you are
in the plane, that's where you break your
fast or start the fast, if you want
to start the fast from that particular point.
Now if you are travelling eastwards, what happens
is, that the day passes very, very quickly.
So say for example, you started from New
York at 12 noon, and the plane basically
goes eastward, within maybe 4 hours, you would
see the sunset outside, and you would break
the fast.
Even though if you were in New York,
you would have to wait till around 8
o'clock, 8 hours later, but because you
are travelling towards east, the day basically becomes
very short.
You are travelling towards the sunset.
Or you are travelling towards the time where
you are shortening the day, because you are
travelling eastwards.
However, when you are travelling westwards, what happens
is, the day becomes very, very lengthy.
So if you are travelling eastwards, it makes
sense to maybe just keep the fast.
If you are travelling westwards, what happens is,
say for example, you set off from London
at 9 in the morning, you get here
after 10 hours of flying, and it's still
only like 11 am.
So you still have to wait.
You waited already about 10 hours from the
time you started the Suhur until the flight
takes off, and then after that, there was
a 10 hour flight, and then after the
10 hour flight, you reach here, then there's
still another 10 hours for you to break
the fast.
So it becomes a 24, 25, even 30
hour fast for you.
So this happens when you are travelling westwards.
Now when you travel to Australia, and you
cross the international date line, weird things happen.
If you are travelling towards Australia, what happens
is, you actually miss a complete day.
And then when you are travelling eastwards, back
from Australia, what happens is, that you start
off, say for example, you start off on
Monday, you start off on Monday, and you
start travelling towards America, what happens is that,
you will get here approximately the same time
that you set off from Australia.
So it's a very strange thing that happens.
So for that, you'd have to work it
out for yourself what you want to do.
But in any case, you have the option
not to fast, but if you can, you
should try to fast.
Now acute thirst, this is the next reason
where a person can break his fast.
Acute thirst basically means a person feels that
he is about to die because of his
dehydration.
There's consensus amongst all the schools that one
suffering from a malady of acute thirst can
break his fast, and if that person can
carry out the missed fast later, it will
be obligatory upon him or her without any
atonement, in the opinion of all of the
four schools of thought.
The elderly.
The old people, men and women, in late
years of their life, for whom fasting is
harmful and difficult, are excused from fasting, but
they have to give the fidya.
And what is the fidya?
Basically across all schools of thought, fidya is
giving a needy person, a poor person, one
meal for each fast missed.
One meal for each fast missed.
And the same is true of a sick
person who does not hope to recover during
the whole year.
The person is in a perpetual sickness, he
is not hoping to, and the doctors are
telling him that it's going to take you
a whole year to recover from this illness,
then he is also not obligated to fast,
he should just give fidya, and he will
not be penalized for this.
When a person is going through these excuses,
sickness, menstruation, whatever the excuses are, if they
stop, what is a person obligated to do
now?
So if the reason permitting not fasting no
longer exists, such as a sick person becomes
well, or the child becomes mature, so halfway
through Ramadan, a person attains bulugh, becomes baligh,
or a traveler, he basically reaches home, or
the menstruation of a woman finishes, it is
recommended in the views of the shafi'i
to refrain from things that break the fast
as a token of respect during the day.
So during the day, if a person comes
home from his travel, he didn't start the
fast because of his travel, and all the
other things that we've just mentioned, now what
should he do?
Because he's home, he didn't fast, should he
eat?
So Imam Shafi'i, he says, out of
respect, he should not eat the rest of
the day.
And the Hanbalis and the Hanafis consider refraining
it as obligatory.
They're a little bit more strict.
They say that you should not eat the
rest of the day.
Because the reason for you not fasting has
now finished, so you should not eat the
rest of the day also.
Even though you have to make up that
fast, but still the rest of the day
you shouldn't eat.
Malikis, they basically take a neutral stance.
They say it's neither obligatory nor recommended, it's
up to the person, whatever he wants to
do.
If he wants to eat, that's fine.
If he doesn't want to eat, that's fine
also.
What are the things that a person is
supposed to refrain from?
Basically there are three things that break the
fast.
Three things that break the fast.
Eating, drinking and intimacy with one's wife.
Or basically sexual satisfaction by other means.
These things will break the fast.
So if any of these things happen, a
person has to, if a person did these
things deliberately, deliberately eats, then he has to
pay the kafara.
And I'll talk about the kafara in a
minute.
Deliberately drinks, then he has to pay the
kafara.
Deliberately had * with one's wife, he has
to pay the kafara.
What is the kafara?
Firstly, if a person has a slave, it's
not applicable in this day and age.
So in the old days, if a person
had a slave, he had to set the
slave free.
So we don't have that anymore.
So you go to the second step.
The second step is to fast for 60
days continuously.
To fast for 60 days continuously, then this
is the second step.
There should not be any break in the
middle.
You have to fast for 60 days.
The third thing is, if a person cannot
even do that, then he should feed 60
poor people.
60 poor people have to be fed by
him and that's basically what the kafara of
the fasting is.
Okay, so I'm going to read through the
text.
Both eating and drinking deliberately invalidate the prescribed
fast and necessitate making up for the fast
missed in the opinion of all the schools,
although they differ as to whether atonement is
also obligatory.
The Hanafis require it, but not the Shafiis
and the Hanbalis, meaning the kafara, the fidya
is due or not.
A person who eats and drinks by an
oversight is neither liable to make up for
missed fast nor atonement, except in the opinion
of the Malikis, who only require it's being
made up.
Included in drinking is inhaling tobacco smoke.
So basically, if a person forgetfully eats, then
he doesn't have to make that up.
He doesn't have to make that fast up.
This is across the board.
The Malikis, they say that it should be
made up.
*, when deliberate, invalidates the prescribed fast and
makes one liable to make up for missed
fast and atonement, meaning the kafara, in the
opinion of all the schools.
The atonement is the freeing of a slave,
number one, and if that is not possible,
fasting for two consecutive months, which I just
mentioned, if even that is not possible, person
is weak, cannot do it, whatever the reason
is, he's ill, he cannot fast for 60
days continuously, then feeding 60 poor people.
The Malikis actually allow an option between these
two.
So they say, you have a choice.
You can either fast for 60 continuous days,
or you can feed 60 poor people.
The others, they say, no, no choice.
It has to be in that order.
The Shatis and Hanbalis and Hanafis impose atonement
in the above mentioned order.
That is, releasing a slave is specifically obligatory
if a person has it.
In the event of incapacity, fasting becomes obligatory,
and if that too is not possible, giving
food to the poor becomes obligatory.
Sexual * by oversight, by mistake.
During the day, husband and wife go to
sleep, and during the course of their sleep,
half awake, they forget that it's the daytime,
they think it's night, and they have *.
Not even realizing what happened.
Or, they think that the clock on the
wall stopped during the night, and they think
it's 3 AM, and it's already past the
whole time, and they engage in *.
So, what happens is, in this case of
oversight, the kafara is not due.
They would just have to make up one
fast.
If a person's * comes out on purpose,
there's two situations.
There's the issue of *, the second issue
is, if a person has a *.
So, in the case of purposefully having an
*, that will invalidate the fast.
But kafara is not due, one fast has
to be made up.
In the case of not doing it on
purpose, basically it is done, it happens while
a person is sleeping, so the fast is
still valid, it doesn't have to be made
up.
A question that many people have, and it
comes up quite frequently, is that my wife
and I, we engaged in * during the
night, so we woke up and we only
had enough time to eat, and we didn't
have time to take a shower, so we
started this fasting in the state of impurity,
is that fast valid or not?
The fast is completely valid.
The only thing that is impermissible is actually
engaging in * after the time has started.
Starting the fast in the state of impurity,
that is perfectly fine, you can just take
a ghusl, after the time has started, and
pray fajr within time.
And again, a person for example overslept, missed
his fajr completely, obviously not on purpose, but
he missed it, so a person, he thinks
back, he says, oh no, I had *
last night, and I overslept, so what do
I do now?
He can basically continue the fast, take a
shower, make up for the missed prayer, and
continue the fast, there's no problem with it.
What about vomiting?
Vomiting, it invalidates the fast, if it's deliberate,
and the opinion of the Shafis and Malikis
also necessitates making up for the fast.
The Hanafi state, that deliberate vomiting does not
break the prescribed fast until the quantity vomited
fills the mouth.
If it's a big amount, the Hanafi school
of thought says, then it will break the
fast.
Two views have been narrated from Imam Ahmed
ibn Hanbal, the schools concur that involuntary vomiting
does not invalidate the prescribed fast.
So people ask me this question all the
time, they say that vomiting, does it break
the fast?
It does not.
Vomiting, which is done involuntarily.
However, there's a secondary issue.
A person, he had his Suhoor, and now
his Suhoor, basically he vomits it all out
completely.
And as a result of that, now he
is feeling fatigue, weakness, and he feels that
he cannot go on with his fast anymore.
So the secondary result of the vomiting is
the weakness, fatigue, and so on, dehydration, whatever
it is.
So in that case he can break the
fast because of that secondary thing.
Not because of the fact that the fasting
broke, the vomiting broke the fast, but because
of the weakness that occurs as a result
of the fast.
So vomiting does not break the fast, but
weakness as a result, as a consequence of
the vomiting that will allow a person to
break the fast and make up for it
later.
Injection.
Injections people ask all the time.
The ruling is that injections, they do not
break the fast unless and until they are
those type of injections that give you nutrition.
So for example, IV.
When a person is dehydrated, a person can
actually survive on the IV, any intravenous fluid,
saline fluid, or whatever it is that they
put, a person can survive without eating and
drinking for many days just on that fluid
that is going through his veins.
So that type of injection, it invalidates the
fast.
However, shots, other types of injections, these types
of injections do not break the fast.
It is permissible for a person to do
it.
The other thing is people ask about going
to the dentist.
Now the issue is going to the dentist
is fine, but the problem is if the
dentist is doing a cleaning and you know
what they do during the cleaning, they basically
jet water, there's a whole stream of water
going into your mouth.
If you swallow that water, then your fast
is broken.
So if it's just an examination, then obviously
the fast is not going to break, but
if the cleaning is going to take place,
it's highly likely that because of the water
that is going in, that the fast is
likely to break.
So don't make any dentist appointments in Ramadan.
The application of what's known as surma or
kohl.
Is it permissible or not?
The maliki say that it does break the
fast, provided that you can taste the kohl
in the back of your throat.
Sometimes you apply it to your eyes and
somehow the taste of it gets into your
throat.
The maliki say that it will break the
fast.
The other schools of thought, they say no.
If a person, to get cool, he submerges
his head inside water, what should he do?
I mean, does that break the fast?
It does not break the fast.
Obviously, as long as a person is not
swallowing the water.
Okay, so that's pretty much it.
I can open up the floor for questions.
There's a few more other things related to
this issue different types of fasting, nifl fasting
and so on.
But I can open up the Q&A,
if anybody wants to ask a question.
Go ahead.
The question that is being asked is that
what should be the amount of food for
the poor person that is fed in lieu
of breaking a fast?
So the answer is basically one meal.
Whatever is the urf.
Urf means whatever is understood to be a
meal in that particular locality, that is to
be given to a person.
So if one plate is regarded as a
meal and that's sufficient for that poor person,
that one plate, however much it costs.
So in America, it might cost a little
bit more.
In India, it would probably cost less.
So whatever it is, recognized to be a
meal that is to be given to the
poor person.
The question is that the person, he missed
his fast during the month of Ramadan and
now he wants to fast the nifl fast
of Shawwal.
Should he make up the fast that he
missed first or can he just fast the
days of Shawwal?
The answer is that the faruth fasting, it
takes precedence.
It needs to be prioritized and needs to
be done before the nifl fasting.
So that should be made up first before
engaging in nifl fasting.
The question is, can you use toothpaste while
fasting?
The answer to that question is that traditionally,
it is regarded as makruh to use toothpaste.
Makruh, why?
Because there is a high likelihood that you
may swallow it.
Now in this, the thing that we have
in this society, especially if you are going
to work, it just doesn't feel good that
if a person is around his co-workers
with bad breath.
So if a person needs to, if a
person really needs to, he can use toothpaste
but he needs to be very careful that
he doesn't swallow it because if he does
swallow, then the fast will become invalid.
People say that the taste of it is
what makes it makruh.
It's not the taste, it's the issue of
swallowing it.
You are allowed to use the miswak at
all times and miswak has a taste too.
You are allowed to use the miswak while
fasting and that has a taste too and
sometimes it's even stronger than toothpaste.
So if you can get hold of a
fresh miswak and use it, it actually serves
just as good, if not better, than toothpaste.
So if you can do that, that's the
best case scenario.
So basically, try to avoid toothpaste if you
can.
If you need to use it because of
going to work and so on, use it
but be absolutely sure that you are not
swallowing it.
Use a very minimal amount and the best
case scenario is to not use toothpaste at
all, just use a miswak.
The question is, does applying lipstick break the
fast?
No, technically it does not break the fast
but if there's not going to be any
intimacy between husband and wife, what's the need
for it?
So you're only going to put on the
lipstick, adorn yourself for your husband, right?
So, but no, it won't break the fast.
No, it's fine.
The question is, what about the miswak with
flavor?
Like mint flavor and so on, it's fine.
Yeah, basically you started the fast in the
case, in the state of not traveling.
So, ideally you should just make it up.
You should finish it because you didn't start
it.
But, however, even in this case, if you
break the fast because you started traveling, you
would only have to make up one.
You don't have to make up 60.
Yes.
The question is, that a person, he's working
in construction, he's working out in the heat
of the sun, so what should he do?
My suggestion for that person would be that
he should try to start the fast and
then during the course of the day, if
he feels exhaustion and he feels that he
cannot continue, then he should break the fast
and then he should make it up at
a later date.
So, we had, for example, we had a
person, a convert, a couple of years back,
became Muslim.
He worked outside.
His family had a business of constructing tents
outside and he was very concerned about this
whole issue of fasting out in the heat.
And I told him the same thing.
He started it.
Alhamdulillah, he managed to pull through.
But he was a young man, so possibly
because of his young age, he could cope
with it.
But, in a situation where a person feels
that his health may be damaged because of
that, he can break the fast and make
it up, maybe in the winter days at
a later date.
Any other questions?
Okay, Alhamdulillah.
You have?
Are you intending to move there?
Then why do you want to know?
That's curious.
Okay.
The question is that what about those places
that have 22-hour days, like Alaska and
so on?
Now, this is actually, even if you go
to Britain, many parts of Northern Europe, it's
very, very strange.
This time of the year, if you go
to England and you step outside after Isha,
you would still actually see light in the
day, light in the sky, although it's dark,
but it doesn't get completely dark.
So, what I do when I go for
my vacation is, basically what happens is there's
not a time when Isha time actually starts,
because Isha time is supposed to start when
darkness comes in, when the sky becomes dark.
So Isha time doesn't actually start.
So what you do is, you pray just
about an hour and a quarter after Maghrib,
because it's not going to get any darker
than what it already is.
Okay?
And then about an hour or so later,
about 1, 1.30 AM, people just pray
Fajr and go to sleep, because the Fajr
beginning time, it starts when the darkness ends
and the light comes in.
The light of dawn comes in.
But the light of dawn basically never finished.
The light was continuously and perpetually there all
the time.
So, you just have to calculate, just make
up a time, calculate and pray at that
time.
Now this becomes a huge issue in Ramadan,
that 1.30 you're praying Fajr, then when
are you going to actually start the fast?
So, then there are basically two opinions about
that.
One opinion is, no, if you're going to
pray Fajr at 1.30, then by about
1.15 you just stop eating and then
you continue the fast.
The other opinion is that you try to
take it all the way up to the
darkness, up to the actual sunrise and an
hour or so before sunrise, hour and a
half before sunrise, you basically stop eating.
So, that's basically how it's calculated.
In the situation where there's no night whatsoever,
what you do is, you calculate according to
the nearest country that has a proper night
and a proper day.
Now this is also based on a Hadith.
The Prophet ﷺ actually said that when the
Dajjal comes, then the time will basically يتقارب
الزمان.
The time will become shrink, it will shrink.
So that a year will become like a
month, a month will become like a week,
a week will become like a day, a
day will become like an hour.
So the Sahaba said, Ya Rasulullah, when the
time is going to be like this, then
how are we going to pray our Salat,
which is the five times daily Salat.
The Prophet ﷺ said, حاسب, you have to
make حساب, calculate.
So calculation basically in perpetual place where six
months is night, six months is day, you
would take a 24 hour cycle and then
just at given times, you would just pray
the five times Salat, irrespective of where the
sun is.
Okay, so the same applies to fasting.
You would just go to a closest country,
where there is a proper night and a
proper day, and go according to their time
table.
Okay.
Inshallah we'll wrap up now.
Jazakumullah khairan for participating.