UNDESIRABLES IN FASTING

DESIRABLES IN FASTING

Q.   What are the desirable acts in fasting?

  The desirable acts in fasting are as follows:

             i.     Eating something for Sahri (predawn meals);

           ii.     Affirming the intention in advance i.e., on the night before;

         iii.     Delaying the Sahri as long as one is sure that eating will be completed before true dawn;

          iv.     Making haste in Iftar when no doubt is left about the setting of the sun;

            v.     Avoiding evils like telling lies and use of abusive language;

          vi.     Breaking fast with dry or fresh dates or in their absence with water.

Q.   What is Sahri and at what time should it be taken?

  Shari is eating something towards the end of the night before true dawn. Appropriate time for it is the fag end of the night before true dawn. Eating something for Sahri is the Prophet’s precept. It will attract great reward from    Al-lah. Even if one is not hungry one helping or two should be taken.

UNDESIRABLE ACTS IN FASTING

Q.   What acts are undesirable in fasting?

  The acts undesirable in fasting are as under:

             i.     Chewing gum or keeping something in the mouth;

           ii.     Tasting something, nevertheless if a woman has a husband who is ill-natured and haughty, she is allowed to taste the salt of a preparation with the tip of the tongue;

         iii.     Spreading one’s legs too wide in cleaning after the satisfaction of the nature’s call or overdoing either in rinsing the mouth or passing water through the nose;

          iv.     Collecting too much saliva in the mouth and swallowing it;

            v.     Back-biting, speaking falsehood and using abusive language;

          vi.     Demonstrating impatience or nervousness (because of fasting);

        vii.     Deliberately postponing the bath till after the true dawn when bath becomes due;

      viii.     Cleaning the teeth with a powder or by crushing the soft coal in the mouth.

Q.   What acts are not undesirable during fasts?

  The following acts are not undesirable in fasts:

             i.     Putting antimony into eyes;

           ii.     Applying oil on the body or the hair;

         iii.     Taking bath to cool oneself;

          iv.     Brushing the teeth even with the green twig of a tree;

            v.     Applying or inhaling perfume;

          vi.     Eating or drinking something through forgetfulness;

        vii.     Vomiting without intention or without outside effort;

      viii.     Swallowing one’s alive;

          ix.     Getting a fly or smoke down one’s throat without intention;

The above acts neither nullify nor affect the fast.

Q.   What do we mean by nullifiers of fast?

  Nullifiers are acts that break or invalidate the fast. Nullifiers are of two kinds: those that make it necessary for us to make up for the missed fast at a later date and those which render expiation necessary.

Q.   What nullifiers render Qada (missed) fasts necessary?

  These are:

             i.     A situation where someone else has forcibly put something into your mouth provided it also gets down the throat;

           ii.     You know that you were fasting and yet some water down your throat accidentally while rinsing the mouth;

         iii.     Your stomach threw out something and you again put it back down the throat deliberately;

          iv.     You threw out a mouthful of vomit through your effort;

            v.     You deliberately swallowed something such a pebble a piece of clay or paper;

          vi.     You freed with the help of your tongue some eatable stuff that was of the size of a grain of gram (or more) and had got stuck in the teeth and swallowed it. But if you had taken the stuff out of the mouth and then taken it down, your fast will immediately break even though the stuff is not even of the size of a grain of gram;

        vii.     Pouring oil into the ears;

      viii.     Putting snuff into the nose;

          ix.     Swallowing back the blood coming out of the mouth provided the blood forms the greater part of the saliva forms the greater part of the saliva thus swallowed;

            x.     Eating something through forgetfulness and persisting in eating in spite of the realization of the mistake under the impression that the fast has already got broken;

          xi.     Eating for Sahri under the impression that true dawn had not broken although it was later discovered that it really had.

        xii.     Breaking a fast other than for Ramadhan with full intention;

      xiii.     Breaking the fast before time being deceived by dust or cloud;

In all situation only the fast thus nullified has to be observed again.

Q.   Under what circumstances do the the Qada (missed) and Kaf-farah (expiation) fasts become necessary?

  Both the Qada fast and the expiation become necessary if anyone of the following situations arise during a Ramadhan fast:

             i.     Deliberately eating or drinking anything that is used as a diet, medicine or for the pleasure of the palate;

           ii.     Doing the sex act with due intention;

         iii.     Having one’s vein punctured or applying antimony to the eyes then eating or drinking something with full intention under the impression that fast already stands broken as a result of anyone of the above mentioned acts.

Q.   Is a person whose fast has got nullified because of one or other reason permitted to eat and drink during Ramadhan?

  No, he is on the other hand, duty bound to abstain from eating and drinking until evening. Similarly, if a person on journey gets back home before sunset, a minor attains to the stage of puberty, a woman gets clear of menstruation or a lunatic regains sanity during the day, they are also duty bound to complete the rest of the day without eating or drinking as though they were fasting.

Q.   Does any fast other than that of Ramadhan, if disturbed deliberately, make expiation necessary?

  No, expiation becomes called for only if a fast in Ramadhan is tampered with. No fast at any other time (even though it be to redeem the missed fast of Ramadhan), if tampered with makes expiation necessary.