The Sunni Association in Iraq / Nullifiers of Fasting

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

Nullifiers of Fasting

Praise be to Allah, the Clear Truth, and prayers and peace be upon His trustworthy Messenger and his family; his followers altogether. As for what follows:

Fasting is nullified by the following:

- Deliberate eating or drinking. The principle is that all food or drink or what serves their purpose is forbidden for the fasting person during the daytime in Ramadan. Whoever deliberately does any of that has broken their fast, and this includes:

  1. Nutritional supplements and vitamins are considered as food and drink.

  2. Adding blood.

  3. Nutritional infusions.

  4. Smoking, which is sinful and breaks the fast.

- Deliberate vomiting.

- Kidney dialysis that involves the addition of nutritional substances and salts.

- Complete unconsciousness or anesthesia covering the whole day from dawn to sunset without regaining consciousness.

- Deliberate sexual intercourse, which requires both expiation and making up the fast.

- The onset of menstrual or postnatal bleeding, and here are matters that must be noted:

  1. A woman is considered pure until she is certain of the onset of bleeding. The ruling for those menstruating or in postnatal period remains the same until purity is certain. Certainty is not lifted by doubt.

  2. There is no fixed duration for menstruation or postnatal bleeding; the ruling depends on the presence or absence of blood.

  3. Discolored discharge and yellowish discharge are considered part of menstruation or postnatal bleeding if they occur during it.

  4. Discolored discharge and yellowish discharge are not considered significant during purity; before the onset of blood, and also after purity, they are not considered impure but are like pus and similar substances.

  5. Movement of blood within the woman's womb or feeling it does not break the fast until the discharge of blood is clear.

  6. A woman breaks her fast if blood is discharged before sunset by a considerable time, such as ten minutes or more, for example, and she must make up a day for it. This is because some muezzins delay the call for Maghrib prayer by about five minutes or more, and in most known prayer timings, they do this. The consideration is for the actual sunset, not for precaution.

- Blood that comes out before a miscarriage or after it has two cases:

  1. If the creation of the fetus is clear: it is postnatal bleeding and mostly does not occur in less than forty days of pregnancy.

  2. If the creation of the fetus is not clear: meaning in less than that, it is considered as istihadah (non-menstrual vaginal bleeding) and does not prevent fasting.

- Caution: Committing major sins and wrongdoings such as backbiting, swearing, oppression, usury, and others decreases the reward and may completely nullify it!! However, it does not break the fast.

May Allah guide us to His pleasure and grant us His love. Prayers and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and his family; his followers altogether.