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[Q-ID0192] When is a traveller excused from Fasting? What if he wrongly missed his Fast?

QUESTION:

1: When does a person’s initiating a journey permit him to leave that day’s fasting?

2: If a person leaves a fast thinking that the fast is not obligatory upon him due to travel or another reason but in reality it is obligatory upon him, is kaffārah (expiation) necessary upon him?

Questioner: Esfak, Blackburn UK

ANSWER:

بسم اللہ الرحمن الرحیم
الجواب بعون الملک الوھاب اللھم ھدایۃ الحق والصواب

[1] If someone leaves the boundaries of the inhabitations (i.e. the outskirts) of his city with the intention of undertaking a journey of 57.5 miles (approximately 92km) that person is a traveller (musāfir) according to the Sharī’ah. If such a person does not fast then there is no sin upon him as Allāh, Owner of Majesty and Praise, has granted him permission in the Qur’ān:

{فَمَنۡ کَانَ مِنۡکُمۡ مَّرِیۡضًا اَوْ عَلٰی سَفَرٍ فَعِدَّۃٌ مِّنْ اَیَّامٍ اُخَرَ}

{So whoever is sick amongst you or on a journey (and he does not fast); so an equal number of fasts on other days (must be kept)}

[Sūrah al-Baqarah, v. 184]

However, many fasts he leaves he must make them up later as Allāh Almighty has commanded this in His saying, {so an equal number of fasts on other days (must be kept)}

In order to leave the fast of a particular day, it is also necessary that the traveller initiates his journey before Fajr (i.e. the time of suhūr) begins. If he begins his journey after Fajr (true dawn) has started then that day’s fast is obligatory upon him and if he leaves it, he will be sinful.

In the famous Hanafī Fiqh text al-Durr al-Mukhtār it is stated,

“يَجِبُ عَلَى مُقِيمٍ إتْمَامُ صَوْمِ رَمَضَانَ سَافَرَ فِي ذَلِكَ الْيَوْمِ یعنی فَلَوْ سَافَرَ بَعْدَ الْفَجْرِ لَا يَحِلُّ الْفِطْرُ”

“It is necessary for a resident (i.e. muqīm) to complete the fast of Ramadān for that day in which he initiated a journey i.e. if he started his journey after the beginning of Fajr, then it is not permissible for him to leave this fast.”

[al-Durr al-Mukhtār, vol. 1, pg. 154]

My master A’lā Hazrat Imām Ahmad Ridā Khān, may Allāh shower him with mercy, whilst answering a question in al-Fatāwā al-Ridawiyyah mentions that the day whose true dawn occurs whilst a musāfir is in the state of traveling, then it is permissible for him to leave its fast and make it up at a later time.

[al-Fatāwā al-Ridawiyyah, vol. 10, pg. 347]

True dawn will occur whilst in the state of travel when such a journey has been initiated prior to true dawn i.e. at the time of suhūr or prior to that.

[2] If someone’s journey was not a journey according to shari’ah [i.e. where the rules of a musāfir are applicable] or he began his journey after the start of Fajr and he left the fast of Ramadan, then tawbah (repentance) is necessary upon him as is the keeping of a fast in its place later on. This is because he left a Fard fast out of his own ignorance. However kaffārah is not due upon him because kaffārah is not necessary upon the one who leaves a fast. Rather, kaffārah is necessary upon the one who breaks a fast when the conditions of kaffārah are present in that situation.

واللہ تعالی اعلم ورسولہ اعلم صلی اللہ علیہ وآلہ وسلم
کتبہ محمد قاسم ضیاء القادری

Answered by Mufti Qasim Zia al-Qadri

Translated by Mawlana Ibrar Shafi

Read the original Urdu answer here – [Q-ID0192] When is a traveller excused from Fasting? What if he wrongly missed his Fast?

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