The Office of the Supreme Leader
Download:

The Rules on Prayer & Fasting 2023

  • Prayer
  • Fasting
    • Conditions and Requirements of Obligatory Fast
      Print  ;  PDF
       
      Conditions and Requirements of Obligatory Fast

       

      787. For fasting in Ramadan to be obligatory, one should meet the following terms:
      1- Attaining the age of bulūgh,
      2- Sanity,
      3- Capability,
      4- Consciousness,
      5- Not being a traveler,
      6- Not being in menses or nifās (for a woman),
      7- Fasting is not harmful,
      8- Fasting is not unbearably hard.
      788. Fasting is obligatory for people who meet the above conditions. Therefore, fasting is not obligatory for an immature child, an insane person, an unconscious person, a person who is unable to fast, a traveler, a menstruating woman or after delivery in some cases, and a person for whom fasting is harmful or involves unbearable hardship.
      789. If a child reaches bulūgh before morning adhān in Ramadan, he must fast. However, if he reaches bulūgh after morning adhān, fasting on that day is not obligatory.
      790. It is obligatory for girls who have just reached bulūgh* to fast, and it is not permissible to break it simply because of hardship, physical weakness, or the like unless fasting is harmful to them or it is very difficult to bear it.
      * According to the famous opinion, when she completes nine lunar years, i.e. equal to 8 solar year, 8 months and 23 days.
      791. The fasting of a woman experiencing menses or nifās is not correct, even if she menstruates or gives birth moments before maghrib. The same rule applies if she becomes clean moments after fajr.
      792. Whoever knows, or rationally thinks (i.e. fears), that fasting is harmful for them, they are not required to fast. Rather, fasting, in some situations, is ḥarām for them, whether this knowledge or fear is originated from one's personal experience, the advice of a trustworthy physician, or another rational source. If such a person fasts, their fast is not in order unless they fast intending nearness to Allah and later they come to know that it was not harmful.
      793. A person who believes that fasting does not harm him, if he fasts and realizes after maghrib that fasting has harmed him, his fast is invalid and he must perform its qaḍā’.
      794. It rests with the mukallaf to recognize the effect of fasting in causing illness or its exacerbation, not being able to fast, or its being harmful. Therefore, if a doctor says: fasting is harmful, but his words do not give him confidence or fear of harm, or the mukallaf has learned through experience that fasting is not harmful, he should fast. Also if the doctor says: fasting is not harmful, but he himself knows that fasting is harmful for him or fear so, he should not fast, and fasting is forbidden for him.
      795. If a sick person gets better during the day in the month of Ramadan, it is not obligatory to make the intention and fast that day. However, if it is before ẓuhr and he has not done anything that invalidates the fast, it is mustaḥabb caution to make the intention and fast and to perform its qaḍā’ after the month of Ramadan.
      796. For a mustaḥabb fast to be valid, it is necessary that one does not owe qaḍā’ of Ramadan fast and by obligatory caution no obligatory fast.
      797. If the person, who owes qaḍā’ fast but does not know that it is not in order to keep a mustaḥabb fast while owing a qaḍā’ one, keeps a mustaḥabb fast, their fast is void and does not replace their qaḍā’ one.
      798. A person, who does not know whether he owes qaḍā’ fast or not, if he fasts with the intention of what is his duty (whether a fast of qaḍā’ and mustaḥabb fast) while in fact he owes a fast of qaḍā’, it is counted as the fast of qaḍā’.
      799. A person owes qaḍā’ fast of Ramadan but forgets it and observes a mustaḥabb fast. If he remembers it in the middle of the day, the mustaḥabb fast is invalidated. Of course, if it is before ẓuhr, he may intend qaḍā’ fast of Ramadan while in the afternoon, his intention of qaḍā’ fast of Ramadan is not valid either.
    • Obligatory Acts of Fasting
    • Makrūh Acts during a Fast
    • Cases in which Qaḍā’ and Intentional kaffārah Are Obligatory
    • The Kaffārah of Breaking Fast Intentionally
    • Cases in which Only Qaḍā’ of Fasting Is Obligatory
    • Rulings of Qaḍā’ Fast
    • Kaffārah of Delay
    • The Rulings on Qaḍā’ of One's Parent's Missed Prayers/Fasts
    • Rulings on a Traveler's Fast
    • People for Whom Fast Is not Obligatory
    • Way of Ascertaining the First of a Lunar Month
    • Types of Fasting
    • Conclusion: Fasting Etiquettes and these of the Holy Month of Ramadan
    • I‘tikāf
700 /