Islamic Education Series by Dr Abdeen Rules of Fasting 04 09 2021

would like to welcome everyone to another episode of the islamic education series which is an educational series that is sponsored by al-ummah center of santa clarita valley and the islamic center of santa clarita valley and hope that inshallah there will be tremendous benefit for everyone we have tackled number of subjects over the past several months and today inshaallah we're going to talk about the rules of fasting and we're not going to talk about how to prepare for ramadan or the virtues of ramadan that's separate topic we're really going to talk about the do's and don'ts what's allowed what's not allowed and then allow time for questions and answers if people have any questions about fasting now just little bit about the series it's every two weeks we have lecture it's on friday night it's now at 7 30 we'll probably have to change that time little bit moving forward in ramadan the series will be suspended so we won't be having the series in ramadan we will resume insha allah after read so it is probably going to be on thursday so it won't be that immediate friday but insha'allah the following one we will resume the islamic educational series and we will be sharing with you what the topic will be in sha allah as we get closer to that time so we'll begin today in sha allah with discussion of the rules of fasting hope that all of you can see my screen you don't really have to see the screen i'm going to be pretty much going through all the slides in detail don't have that many slides because want to offer time for questions and answers but first what is fasting mean before we know the rules of something we have to know what we're talking about and assayam or fasting in in the arabic language means to abstain from something al-imsak it's just means to abstain from something the islamic definition of fasting is to abstain from food drink of any kind and sexual intercourse from dawn meaning from fajr until sunset which is maghrib with the explicit intention of doing so for the sake of allah so you have to actually intend to abstain for the sake of ibadah that you actually are doing worship to allah so if you're abstaining to lose weight or you're abstaining because of some health issue or someone told you to try it that's different that's physiological exercise and you you're welcome to do it but it's not fasting you actually have to have in addition to abstaining an intent to do so for the sake of allah and as an act of worship the fasting of the month of ramadan who believe fasting is prescribed upon you or for you as it was prescribed for those before you so that you may be righteous or pious as you wish to translate the word in two years after that allah refers specifically to and whoever of you witnesses the month meaning you're alive and present during the month of ramadan then you shall fast it that's requirement you shall fast it it is great sin if you are able to fast and you don't fast in one hadith of the prophet saws he said whoever purposefully does not fast even one day of ramadan without an excuse allowed by allah he will never be able to make up for his sin even if he fast the remainder of his life and of course that is to magnify and clarify to us that it is such great sin to not fast the month of ramadan even one day of it when you are capable able and have no excuse and we will go through some of those excuses shortly so who's required to fast and when do we start fasting well we start fasting with the sighting of the new moon of the month of ramadan the prophet sallam said fast after you have seen it and stop the fast when you have seen it so when you have seen it it means start your fasting when you see the first sign of the of the crescent of the moon of the month of ramadan and stop fasting when you see the new crescent of the month of shawwal which is of course the night of and so it's it's very clear but then he goes on to say but if it is hidden from you meaning you cannot see there are clouds whatever it may be then wait until 30 days of shaban have passed now there is little controversy here that we do need to discuss as to the sighting and i'm not going to go into the whole discussion of whether we have to actually see it with our own eyes or whether we can take by calculations there has been lot of discussion on this that is election and of itself but the bottom line is that the the consensus is that we should attempt to see it we should try to see it but we can use still calculations if we deem them to be accurate calculations to decide the beginning and the end of the month now the controversy about the sighting is whether it is limited to the people of the region in in the books of they say balad balad means country or region and said if it is limited to the people of that region or is it the entire muslim ummah for example if somebody sees the moon in malaysia does that obligate us in the united states to begin fasting if they see the moon in mecca does that obligate us to fast so there's controversy about that some people say yes as long as it's seen anywhere in the world then everyone must begin fasting others say no it's limited to your region and they have different hadith to support their position so now what defines the region is it your state is it your city is it your your your country lot of controversy about that we're not going to get into all of that it's it's some of it is unfortunately political but nevertheless the bottom line is if people in your region agree and say this is the day we're gonna fast then you should follow suit you should not go out on limb and be your own decider that's not how it works in islam we are one people we worship together and that's the whole idea of ramadan the entire muslim nation is engaging in an act of worship for the month and so it's important that we stick together especially in one region or in one city or in one town now there are two essential elements of fasting or the pillars of fasting there are two of them the first one is to abstain from that which nullifies the fast and we're going to go into the things that nullify the fast from dawn to sunset from fajr to sunset and eat and drink until the white streak of dawn can be distinguished from the black streak meaning the streak in the sky then complete the till nightfall which is that's the first thing the second important pillar is intention alluded to it in the beginning the intention does not have to be verbal but it does have to be nightly so it has to be every night of ramadan and it has to be after maghrib and it has to be before this is different than non-obligatory fasting not obligatory fasting you don't have to have the intention from the night before you can wake up and decide you want to be fasting that day you're totally fine you have lot of leeway but in the fasting of ramadan you have to make the intent the night before now you don't have to verbalize that intent but it has to be in your heart now lot of scholars say that the actions of ramadan are really display of intent so for example if you wake up to have suhoor mean who wakes up to eat before fajr that's display of intent if you're waking up to absorb then you have intent to fast that day and you don't need to say anything in particular so that's important who is required to fast first of all muslims are required to fast we're not going to ask christians or jews or or non-believers to fast they don't have to the person has to be of sound mind the process so you have to be of sound mind if somebody has mental illness and doesn't able to understand the whole concept of fasting then they are not required too fast people have to have reached the age of puberty so young children who are below the age of puberty are not required to fast but have statement at the end about them people who are healthy so people who are sick should not be fasting if the fast is going to delay their recovery or worsen their illness and we'll talk more about that you have to be resident meaning you have to be actually living in in arabic we say mukheim you actually have to be living not traveling musafir does not have to fast they can if they want to but they are not required during their traveling time to fast for women it's important that they not be in state of administration or that they have postpartum postpartum means after delivery so if they're pregnant they deliver baby usually after delivery there's bleeding vaginal bleeding that happens for number of days and it can be up to 40 days but they cannot be in state of administration or in state of bleeding after delivery of baby what is called postpartum bleeding children under the age of puberty are not required to fast but we should encourage them to do so so that they can get in the habit of doing this worship and get in the habit of doing this so that's an important and the sahaba used to do that they used to encourage their children to engage in fasting so that they begin to begin to develop the habits so by the time they reach puberty they are used to the concept of fasting the month of ramadan now there are some people who are not able to fast and ever so they have conditions that preclude them from being able to fast the month or part of the month or the entire month and these people have to pay compensation so they're not required to make up the days that they didn't fast because they can't fast at all and so they have to pay compensation who are these people well first elderly people who cannot withstand the fast so if an elderly person is healthy and they can withstand the fast and they really must fast however if they cannot because they're frail or they're ill or they just may not be ill they just be very advanced in age that there is real fear that fasting will cause illness or will result in an illness those those people should not fast and they will have to pay compensation and we're going to get to how much that compensation is people who are ill and have no hope of recovery so if somebody for example has cancer and there's no chance they're going to recover from that or they're undergoing complex treatments that render them sick then they also do not fast and pay compensation the scholars also mention people with very demanding jobs physically demanding jobs so people who work out in the heat and they have no other way of doing any other work and if they don't work they can't live they need that income to sustain themselves and their families then they can be excused and they would have to pay compensation some scholars such as ibn rama and ibn abbas say that pregnant and nursing mothers if they are concerned about their the well-being of their baby so not about their own well-being but the well-being of the baby then they do not have to fast and they can pay compensation now the above categories we mentioned have to pay compensation by feeding needy person for every day that they don't fast the equivalent of assa in arabic is called or half of asa or mud now we say why are these or or well because the scholars differ on what the amount of compensation should be some say asa some say half saw some say mud now you're going to say what is asa and what is half asa and what is mud don't know either well now know but when first learned of this or first read it who knows what the we don't use those units of measurement anymore they were used historically and that's why the books of have them as units of measurement but we know the equivalent the modern day equivalent the thought is about two kilos two kilograms which translates into about four and half pounds four and half pounds can be of of rice it can be four and half pounds of wheat it can be the equivalent in in money so you don't actually actually have to give food you can actually pay the equivalent in money now each slot is equivalent to four mud we know that therefore each mud is about half kilo or 1.12 pounds this is five pound bag of flour which is obtained from wheat and looked up the cost on amazon and i'm not making an advertisement for amazon you can look it up elsewhere but that was just most convenient for me it was 13.56 cents and the reason put this up there is because if you want to compensate you need to compensate the right amount so if you're not going to physically give food such as weed or flour or whatnot you have to pay the equivalent so would suggest about fifteen dollars to be safe remember we said it's four and half pounds so five pounds is close enough if you want to say no only want to do four and half pounds you can knock off 10 of this price and it'll be about about twelve dollars or so and think ten dollars is too little and know you're gonna say well but you know can give ten dollars to you know in another country you know and and in that country you can buy 20 pounds of flour so why don't do that no you cannot do that that's cheating you cannot do that it has to be from what you eat so it's from something similar to your community what you live in your own household what you normally would eat so that number of 10 or 15 dollars is subject to change depending on your specific circumstance and make sure you remember that allah is watching and do what is right not what is cheap do what's right so you have to feed from kind of the scholars say from the middle ground of what you normally would eat now want to focus little bit on pregnancy and nursing so mothers who are pregnant or who are nursing their babies as said they don't have to fast or make up for the days they lost they only have to pay compensation the hanafi method says the opposite they have to make up the days at later time and they do not have to pay compensation so differing opinions two completely different opinions the hambury and shafiri school say if they are concerned about the child only then they have to fail they have to fast the days later and they have to pay compensation if their concern is for their own health or for both their own health and the child's health then they have to fast the days later and not pay compensation so they have differing opinions depending on what the concern is specifically if it's about the child then they have to make it up later if it is about themselves only and then they have to fast days later and not pay compensation now there are those who are unable to fast but they have to make up the days later so let's talk about those two categories actually several other categories but on this slide have two of them one is the sick person many scholars say that only those with severe illness in such way that fasting will delay recovery or make their illness worse those people then should not fast those days they are sick and they shall make it up at later time there's no compensation to pay they actually have to fast those days at later time others say any illness allows one to break the fast they even said specifically toothache something as simple as toothache allow you to break your fast and make it up later now has beautiful saying about all this it encompasses both the traveler and the ill person so will come to it after we talk about traveling traveling carries burden so allah made it easy for us and he said if you are traveling then you can break your fast you don't have to fast and you make it up at later time now the scholars say what is travel mean how far is travel mean if you go down the street is that travel no they said it's the travel of distance equivalent to what allows you to shorten the prayer and they estimate that difference about 83 and half kilometers or 52 miles so that and you have to have the intention of travel so you know we live in the los angeles area and if you you can easily go 52 miles without having any intention of travel so it's you know you can go and and come back in the same day and travel 52 miles each way and still if you have no intent of travel then it's not travel and you have to fast so the intention is important now many scholars say that not fasting while you're traveling is optional meaning if you want to fast while you're traveling you still can and said the best thing to do is to do what is easier for you if fasting is easier for you then you should fast but if breaking the fast is easier then you should not fast you can go ahead and break the fast and the idea is you say well why would it be easier because sometimes people feel that it's easier to fast in ramadan when everyone else is fasting and it's harder to fast later in the year when nobody is fasting and you're the only one fasting so you have to look at your specific circumstance and decide now there are those who are required to break their fast and make it up later women during their menstrual period they are forbidden from fasting and even if they decide to fast it is not acceptable it's not considered that they fulfilled that day of worship they still have to make it up secondly women who have postpartum bleeding we mention and describe what that is so women after they deliver baby they will have vaginal bleeding for number of days and if it happens in the month of ramadan then they are forbidden from fasting those days in which they have bleeding and they have to make it up later there is no compensation financial compensation they actually have to fast those days at later time want to talk little bit about suhur and about breaking the fast first of all is the meal we eat before fajr it's any time after the middle of the night so the scholars say in the middle of the night up until right before fajr and it is highly recommended but there is no sin in leaving it so if you don't do it you haven't broken any major rules the prophet sallam said make sure you have suhoor indeed there is blessing in suhoor even sip of water accomplishes sahur we talked about the timing the prophet sallam said in another beautiful hadith my ummah is in good state as long as they hasten the breaking of the fast and delay the suhur meaning when maghrib time comes you have to break the fast you can't delay it hasten it but delay it as much as possible to before fajr the sunnah is to break your fast but if there are no dates available or you cannot have dates let's say you're allergic to them or you don't like them and you don't want to eat dates then you can break your fast on water that's the sunnah so if you don't have the dates you can break your fast on water it is also recommended that when you break your fast that you make dua at the time of breaking of the fast and it is important to break the fast before you pray madrid so break your fast then pray maghrib then you can have your meal but at least break the fast right before you pray that is the sunnah of the prophet salallahu now there are lot of questions that come up about what's acceptable while you are fasting what can you do that's acceptable so the scholars have given opinions about this in great detail and they say things like swimming so going into pool bathing showering all of that is permissible for anyone who wants to put on makeup they talk about alcohol as specific type of of makeup for the eyes they allow it any creams on the skin is allowed eye drops are allowed kissing is allowed and know you're gonna say why are you talking about sexual that we have to this is important that we learn our faith correctly and so we are going to talk about things like this in respectable manner the there are many hadith of the prophet saws that he used to kiss his wives during fasting however the hanafi and the shafiri school of thought say that it is not recommended to kiss if it stimulates your desires that in general it's better to avoid kissing until after now injections people ask about this all the time intravenous injections intramuscular injections subcutaneous injections these are injections underneath the skin all of them do not nullify the fast they are acceptable having your blood drawn does not nullify the fast lot of people think if have blood drawn that nullifies no in arabic there's something called hojamma the prophet salem used to do they use bloodletting they used to do it and it does not break the fast does not break the fast you have to do to do your salah this includes the cleaning of the nose and the cleaning of the mouth brushing your teeth using the siwak of course is recommended but using toothbrush and toothpaste you can but you have to be careful to avoid swallowing water or toothpaste now if you swallow inadvertently little bit that still doesn't break your fast but if you swallow purposefully so again only you will know then it will break your fast so be careful you cannot swallow water or toothpaste while you are brushing your teeth the scholars also say that swallowing things you cannot avoid so if there's dust and you walk into dusty room and you feel some of that dust in your throat then you have no control over that and it is does not nullify the fast they even said that tasting the food without swallowing it so you can put it on the tip of your tongue and taste it particularly for the person cooking the meal and they want to taste just to be sure of something it's okay to do that smelling of odors whether it's perfume or food that none of that nullifies the fast now this is an anatomical drawing and have it on here for purpose because you're gonna think why is he giving us lecture in anatomy well the reason is because there's an important concept as to what nullifies the fast and what doesn't the scholars talk about anything that enters the jou so they use the word in arabic joff and jof is the hollow interior of something and whether it enters from the nose or the mouth or the rectum the gi tract is one hollow tube it starts in the mouth and the nose and it goes down the esophagus to the stomach from the stomach to the small intestines from the small intestines to the large intestines it's all one big tube all the way down to the rectum which is where the stool comes out at the time of defecation so this entire tube is what the scholars refer to is as al josh that's why an injection does not nullify the fact fast because when you're injecting into vein you're not injecting into the joke you're not injecting it into the stomach or into the esophagus or into the intestines therefore it doesn't nullify the fat fast but if you swallow water then it will nullify the fast because that water has entered the job and that's what they mean by joff or the hollowness in the body which is the gastrointestinal tract which have depicted here on the picture for you to see now permissible things during ramadan you are allowed to eat drink and have sexual intercourse after maghrib and up until fajr once feature starts even if you have food in your mouth you have to spit it out you cannot swallow it once fissure starts it's over fasting has begun now lot of people ask what happens if if you know pray feature and then sleep and then wake up in an impure state so for example if somebody had wet dream during the night the answer is it does not nullify your fast because you have no control over that it does not nullify your fast but you will need to perform whistle before the next prayer because you have to purify yourself and clean yourself before you pray same thing if woman was menstruating the day before and then the administration stops at night then she has to start fasting the next day but she can delay her hustle until which is the cleansing until the next morning the next morning but of course she has to do it before she prays so fisher may have the advantage may have happened she may not pray fisher until later before sunrise in that period of time she has to do the listed if she did not do it the night before so that's an important but she still considered fasting even though the event of fisher happened and she was not in state of purity yet so the fasting continues there are important things that nullify the fast and require that you make it up the first is eating and drinking purposefully so if you eat and drink between fajr and maghrib on purpose your fast is nullified for that day and you have to make it up after ramadan now let's say you forgot sometimes that happens you're in habit of eating or drinking something on time schedule or whatever and you forget no then your fast is valid as soon as you remember you stop eating and drinking and you continue your fast purposeful vomiting nullifies the scholars have opined about inhalers such as used by asthmatics or people who use nasal inhalers basically it's it's an aerosol so it's liquid that is is transformed into gas but it still has droplets in it and when you use that inhaler with in your mouth or in your nose some of those droplets are going to enter the job because they're going to enter yeah most of it will go to the lung but some of it or lot of it will enter the esophagus and as such it nullifies are considered sick person and you don't need to fast so you either make it up at later time when your asthma is controlled or if your asthma is so bad that you will never be able to fast and you pay compensation enemas enemas are treatments that are given through the rectum again there are things entering the job so therefore they nullify the fast however some scholars in the sheffield and maliki school say that it does not nullify the fast the start administration or postpartum bleeding even if it is moments before madrid so if woman is fasting and let's say by four o'clock in the afternoon her menstrual period stops starts then she does not fast the remainder of that day and she has to make up the entire day now what about ejaculation so ejaculation is when the spermatic fluid comes out and when that happens by means of physical contact with the genitals either the person is contacting their own genitals or something else is contacting the genitals or any other sexual contact so the scholars say even if somebody hugs someone and they happen to then release ejaculation that nullifies their fast and they have to make it up at later time anything else that follow on purpose that is not food or drink there are circumstances where somebody may do that but if that happens it nullifies the fest i've had people ask me well you know forgot to take my medicine in the morning and remember can just follow the pill without water you can't it nullifies your fast yes it's not food or drink but nullifies your fast if you are sick and you are dependent on that pill and your doctor advises you that you shall not miss day then you just break your fast and have pill you might as well have it with some water and then you make up the day later you would be considered sick now what happens if you break your fast early so let's say you thought it was maghrib and then you discovered maghrib still has not started but you already ate your fast is nullified you have to make up that day so be careful make sure you know that indeed this is the right time of mother that's why muslims are very careful they want to know the start and the stop times for every day so that they don't mess it up and some people like to wait for minute or two after then of just to make sure that they do not engage in this kind of activity they're fast now there are things that will nullify the fast and require makeup and compensation so you have to make up the days and you have to engage in activity of compensation and this is different than the compensation that we talked about for the elderly or the sick who have to pay for every day they missed and there's only one thing that is puts you in situation where you have to make up the day that you lost and you have to engage in compensation and that is sexual intercourse and am very specific on choosing that word it has to be intercourse okay so any other type of sexual activity is not considered sexual intercourse the scholars are very specific about that you have to make up the day later and you have to engage in compensation not all of it is payment sometimes it's not payment but you have to compensate and you have to compensate in very specific manner the first thing you have to do is liberate slave that's required but what if you're not able so for example today we don't find slaves there are no slaves that we can easily liberate then you go to the next allowed method of compensation and that's tough one you have to fast two months in succession 60 days you can't skip some days here and days there and say i'll do the 60 days i'll do five days here then i'll stop for five days and then do another fight no it has to be 60 days in succession tough one if you're not able let's say you are sick or you cannot do it then you have to feed 60 of the knee now it's important that that to know that you cannot choose from among these three you have to do them in that order so the first is liberated slave if you're not able to because there are no slaves then you have to fast to two months then if you're not able to do that then you feed 60 of the needy and again from the middle of what you eat you can't say i'm going to go and feed 60 in in cheap country where it's not going to cost me much to save money that's not allowed now the majority of scholars are of the opinion that the above compensation pattern is required of both the man and the woman so both of them however if the woman was forced or she was not fasting that day for another reason let's say she was sick then she is not required to compensate that's important the shafiri opinion is that the woman is never required to compensate and they say that there is no evidence from that from the hadith or from the quran so therefore woman is not required to compensate the hanafi medha also has an opinion related to this issue of compensation and he says that if the sexual intercourse happens on one day and then another time on different day in ramadan then only one compensation is required so you don't have to fast 60 days for each day that this sexual activity happens no only one time for the two days however the maliki and shafiri opinion is that you have to compensate for each day and allahu alam in my opinion think this is the right decision because what will happen in the hanafi situation is once you've done it one day then you say you know what can do it tomorrow too and only have one compensation can do it again the third time and only have one compensation so you can take advantage of that so it's not good the whole idea is to avoid sexual intercourse during the during the time of fasting that's the whole idea behind this compensation scheme is to really motivate you to avoid it entirely and and and so the maliki and shafiri ruling think is is more congruent with the objective which is to avoid that kind of activity in its entirety during the fasting time frame now most scholars would agree that if if sexual intercourse happens twice in one day then there's only one compensation required for that day the last slide want to share with you has to do with making up missed days because lot of people have questions about this the days that you missed let's say you were sick or you were traveling or for women they were in their ministry cycle you make up the days any time prior to the next ramadan except you cannot make it up on the day of riddle or the day of that's important those days you're not allowed to fast but any other day in the year up until the next ramadan you can make it up now they do not have to be in succession so let's say you missed five days you can do one day and then the following week do two days and you can you don't have to do them in succession now what happens if the next ramadan arrives and you have not made up your days you haven't completed them yet then you have to complete them after the completion of the second ramadan so you the first ramadan you missed let's say five days the next ramadan year later comes and you still haven't done the five days you still have to do them after the second ramadan and you also have to do whatever you miss in that second ramadan so that's important now the maliki shafiri and hanbari school of thought say that if you miss in between both ramadans you miss to complete your days then you have to also feed one needy person for every day that you did not complete prior to the second ramadan that's what they said it's required so you have to still make it up after the second ramadan but in addition to that you have to pay one needy person for each day that you were not able to complete i'm going to stop there ask allah to enable us to fast the month of ramadan successfully and that we do so with completeness and that allah accept from us our fast and that we do it correctly and that allah guide us always to the right opinion i'm going to open now for questions don't know if we have see chat here let me you know what i'm gonna do