Rules of Breaking Fasting
Q 791: Is it permissible to follow Sunnīs in their timings for breaking the fast while one attends public or official gatherings and the like? What is one’s duty if s/he thinks that doing so cannot be counted as one of the instances of dissimulation and no compulsion is involved?
A: It is not permissible for a mukallaf to follow others in breaking the fast unless there is shar‘ī evidence that it is maghrib time. If it is a case of dissimulation, they can break their fast but they should make it up in qaḍā’. Otherwise, they cannot break their fast before they are sure through sense [sight] or there is shar‘ī evidence that the day has ended and the night has begun.
Q 792: When I was fasting, my mother forced me to eat and drink. Did it invalidate my fast?
A: Eating and drinking invalidates fast, even if it is done at the request or insistence of someone else.
Q 793: If something is forced into the mouth of someone, or his head is forcibly submerged in water, does it invalidate the fast? If they are forced to break their fast, e.g. they are told you break your fast or you/your property will be harmed and they eat something in order to evade the danger, is their fast valid?
A: Forcing food into another’s mouth without their consent does not invalidate their fast and neither does submerging their head in water. However, if they break the fast themselves when forced or threatened, the fasting becomes void.
Q 794: While going on a trip someone who is fasting breaks his fast before crossing the tarakhkhuṣ limit with the notion that he is a traveler, without knowing that he may break his fast before noon only when he has gone beyond the tarakhkhuṣ limit. What is the rule concerning his fast? Does he have to perform its qaḍā’ or is he liable to something else as well?
A: In the given case, his fasting is invalid and he should fast again. However, if he did not know the rule, he is not liable to kaffārah.
Q 795: While suffering from a cold, some mucus gathered in my mouth and I swallowed it instead of spitting it out. Was my fast valid? Also, once, staying for some days with one of my relatives during the blessed month of Ramadan, I had a cold and felt shy to perform ghusl of janābah, so I did tayammum instead and did not perform ghusl until some time before noon. This happened for several days. Were my fasts for those days valid? If not, do I have to pay the kaffārah as well?
A: Swallowing the mucus does not make one liable to anything. However, after the mucus enters the mouth, one should — by obligatory caution — avoid swallowing it. As for not performing ghusl of janābah before dawn and performing tayammum instead, if the tayammum was done because of some shar‘ī excuse or done at the last moment due to shortness of time, then your fasting is valid. Otherwise your fasts for those days are void.
Q 796: I work in an iron ore mine and the nature of my work requires me to enter the mine daily. While working with mining equipment dust enters my mouth. This is my daily routine throughout the year. What is my duty? Is my fast valid?
A: Swallowing thick dust invalidates the fast by obligatory caution. Therefore, one must guard against it. However, the entering of dust into the mouth and the nose does not invalidate the fast unless it reaches the throat.