What breaks the fast and what doesn't, in the four schools

What breaks the fast and what doesn’t, in the four schools

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Quick answer: All four schools agree that deliberate eating, drinking and sexual intercourse break the fast, and that the day must then be made up. The schools differ on a handful of points, mainly forgetful eating, which cases carry kaffarah (expiation), cupping and eye drops. Ramadan is expected to begin on Monday 8 February 2027 under the Umm al-Qura calendar, so there’s time to learn these rules before the first fast.

The start date is an expected one. It depends on the crescent being sighted, and communities that rely on local sighting rather than calculation may begin a day later. The Ramadan dates page explains how the start is decided, and the Ramadan timetables give daily fasting times for your city.

The starting point: what the Quran names

The fast is defined in the Quran by what a person holds back from between dawn and nightfall. The verse below names eating, drinking and marital relations, and sets the limits of the day.

أُحِلَّ لَكُمْ لَيْلَةَ ٱلصِّيَامِ ٱلرَّفَثُ إِلَىٰ نِسَآئِكُمْ ۚ هُنَّ لِبَاسٌۭ لَّكُمْ وَأَنتُمْ لِبَاسٌۭ لَّهُنَّ ۗ عَلِمَ ٱللَّهُ أَنَّكُمْ كُنتُمْ تَخْتَانُونَ أَنفُسَكُمْ فَتَابَ عَلَيْكُمْ وَعَفَا عَنكُمْ ۖ فَٱلْـَٰٔنَ بَٰشِرُوهُنَّ وَٱبْتَغُوا۟ مَا كَتَبَ ٱللَّهُ لَكُمْ ۚ وَكُلُوا۟ وَٱشْرَبُوا۟ حَتَّىٰ يَتَبَيَّنَ لَكُمُ ٱلْخَيْطُ ٱلْأَبْيَضُ مِنَ ٱلْخَيْطِ ٱلْأَسْوَدِ مِنَ ٱلْفَجْرِ ۖ ثُمَّ أَتِمُّوا۟ ٱلصِّيَامَ إِلَى ٱلَّيْلِ ۚ وَلَا تُبَٰشِرُوهُنَّ وَأَنتُمْ عَٰكِفُونَ فِى ٱلْمَسَٰجِدِ ۗ تِلْكَ حُدُودُ ٱللَّهِ فَلَا تَقْرَبُوهَا ۗ كَذَٰلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ ٱللَّهُ ءَايَٰتِهِۦ لِلنَّاسِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَّقُونَ

It has been made permissible for you the night preceding fasting to go to your wives [for sexual relations]. They are clothing for you and you are clothing for them. Allah knows that you used to deceive yourselves, so He accepted your repentance and forgave you. So now, have relations with them and seek that which Allah has decreed for you. And eat and drink until the white thread of dawn becomes distinct to you from the black thread [of night]. Then complete the fast until the sunset. And do not have relations with them as long as you are staying for worship in the mosques. These are the limits [set by] Allah, so do not approach them. Thus does Allah make clear His ordinances to the people that they may become righteous.

From this verse scholars built the wider rules. A principle that recurs in the sources is the “inner body” (jauf in Arabic): something that passes from outside, through a natural opening, into the digestive system. The International Islamic Fiqh Academy (IIFA), meeting in Jeddah in 1997 and again in Madinah in 2018, describes the part of the body that invalidates the fast as whatever passes the mouth and throat into the oesophagus and intestines.

Dorar’s summary of fiqh records that all four schools agree on one practical point: if someone deliberately breaks the fast by eating or drinking, they stop and abstain for the rest of the day. The same summary says all four agree that swallowing something not normally eaten, such as a coin or a small stone, breaks the fast.

Eating or drinking by mistake

This is the clearest example of the schools splitting. Sahih al-Bukhari records the report below, which Abu Hurayra (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated.

إِذَا نَسِيَ فَأَكَلَ وَشَرِبَ فَلْيُتِمَّ صَوْمَهُ، فَإِنَّمَا أَطْعَمَهُ اللَّهُ وَسَقَاهُ

Narrated Abu Huraira:The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "If somebody eats or drinks forgetfully then he should complete his fast, for what he has eaten or drunk, has been given to him by Allah

The Hanafi, Shafi’i and Hanbali schools take this at its word: the fast stands, there’s nothing to make up, and the person simply carries on. Dorar describes this as the position of the majority, and it quotes Imam Ahmad as saying the person owes neither a make-up day nor expiation.

The Maliki school holds that a day broken by forgetful eating is invalidated and must be made up. SeekersGuidance, answering from within the Maliki school, notes that the Maliki scholar al-Qurtubi preferred the other view in his commentary on 2:187, but that his preference isn’t the position of Imam Malik himself.

Forgetting versus an accident

The Hanafi texts separate three cases: acting deliberately, acting by accident, and acting while forgetting that you’re fasting. A person who knows they’re fasting and swallows water while rinsing for wudu has had an accident. According to a SeekersGuidance Hanafi answer, that day is invalidated, with a make-up day owed and no kaffarah.

The same source lists two more Hanafi cases in this category. One is eating because you believed Maghrib had come when it hadn’t. The other is eating because you doubted whether Fajr had entered, when it really had.

Deliberate breaking: make-up days and kaffarah

Everyone agrees on the make-up day. The disagreement is over kaffarah, the heavier expiation. IslamOnline’s fiqh section reports that the Hanafi and Maliki schools require kaffarah for a deliberate break by eating or drinking as well as by intercourse. The Shafi’i and Hanbali schools require it only for intercourse, and for deliberate eating or drinking they require the make-up day and sincere repentance.

School Forgetful eating Deliberate eating: kaffarah? Cupping Eye drops
Hanafi Fast stands Yes Does not break Do not break
Maliki Day is made up Yes Does not break Break if they reach the throat
Shafi’i Fast stands Only for intercourse Does not break Do not break (apparent position)
Hanbali Fast stands Only for intercourse Breaks Break if they reach the throat

The cupping column follows a report that the Hanbali school treats cupping as breaking the fast, while the majority read the same material as guidance only. That Hanbali position rests on a report outside Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, so it isn’t quoted here. The eye-drop column follows Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta, which describes the dominant Hanafi view and the apparent Shafi’i position as non-invalidating, and the Maliki and Hanbali view as invalidating if the drops reach the throat.

Where kaffarah applies, the tiers are the same in the sources. Freeing a slave isn’t applicable today, so the person fasts 60 consecutive days, or feeds 60 poor people if they genuinely can’t fast. One comparative study reports that the Hanafi, Shafi’i and Hanbali schools apply the tiers in that order, while the Maliki school allows a choice among them. If you think kaffarah applies to you, ask a qualified scholar how it’s measured and paid in your case.

For an ordinary excused day (illness, travel, menstruation), the day is made up one for one. A Human Appeal guide puts the deadline at before the next Ramadan.

Medical questions that come up every year

This is where readers in the UK, US, Canada and Australia ask the most questions, since many take regular medication. The IIFA resolutions are the broadest official reference, and they’re a pointer to what a major fiqh body concluded, not a ruling for any individual.

  • Blood tests and donation: the IIFA’s 2018 resolution lists blood extraction for laboratory analysis or donation among the things that don’t invalidate the fast. A Hanafi Q&A on IslamQA says the same, but calls donating undesirable if it causes weakness.
  • Eye, ear and nose drops: the IIFA’s 1997 resolution says a drop in the eye or ear, or a nasal drop or spray, doesn’t invalidate the fast as long as what reaches the throat isn’t swallowed.
  • Asthma inhalers: the IIFA’s 2018 resolution says an inhaler doesn’t affect the fast. It reasons that the medicine targets the lungs, and that the amount reaching the stomach is smaller than what remains after rinsing the mouth for wudu or using a miswak. The same resolution says dry-powder inhaler capsules do invalidate the fast, because part of the powder reaches the stomach.
  • Nutritional injections and drips: the IIFA’s 2018 resolution says anything that nourishes the body, such as nutrient injections, invalidates the fast. It lists blood transfusion and dialysis with large quantities of fluids in the same group.

Scholars and fatwa bodies don’t all land in the same place. A Hanafi answer published on IslamQA says an asthma inhaler used during the day nullifies the fast, with a make-up day owed and no kaffarah. The same answer advises using it at suhoor and iftar where possible. By contrast, a different Hanafi Q&A on IslamQA states that injections and drips don’t nullify the fast, and Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta says injections, saline and glucose don’t invalidate it because they enter through the skin rather than an open orifice.

In practice, a UK general practice’s Ramadan guidance says fingerprick and intravenous blood tests don’t invalidate the fast. It also notes that it may be possible to switch to longer-acting inhalers if you’d rather not use one while fasting. Ask your GP or pharmacist about medicine timing well before 8 February, and ask your imam which view applies to your school.

Everyday situations

Situation What the sources report Where schools differ
Swallowing your own saliva Does not break the fast None reported
Involuntary vomiting Does not break the fast; deliberate vomiting does Hanafi: deliberate vomiting breaks the fast only if it fills the mouth
Kissing a spouse Does not break it by itself; disliked if there’s a risk of ejaculation or intercourse Swallowing the spouse’s saliva is treated separately
Ejaculation after repeated looking Hanbali: breaks the fast, no kaffarah Hanafi and Shafi’i: does not break it
Food stuck between the teeth Hanafi: no effect if smaller than a chickpea Not covered here for the other schools

On saliva, a comparative guide from Shaykhi describes the position as agreed across the four schools: your own saliva doesn’t break the fast. Islamweb adds that scholars regard constant worry about swallowing saliva as a whisper of doubt to ignore, and that nothing was reported of the Prophet ﷺ or the Companions wiping their lips for fear of it.

Kissing is described by Islamweb, quoting a fiqh encyclopedia, as disliked for a fasting person who isn’t safe from ejaculation or intercourse. AMJA’s fatwa says kissing between spouses doesn’t invalidate the fast unless it involves swallowing the other person’s saliva. The Hanafi texts quoted by SeekersGuidance put swallowing a spouse’s saliva in the same category as deliberate eating, with both a make-up day and kaffarah.

On ejaculation without intercourse, a comparative study reports that the four schools require a make-up day and no kaffarah. Dorar reports that imagination alone doesn’t break the fast, whether the thought is constant or passing.

The Hanafi list of things that don’t break the fast also includes dust or smoke entering the throat without the person’s doing, and tasting the traces of medicine left in the mouth or throat. Clean the teeth with a miswak or a brush, and spit everything out. A Shafi’i-focused guidance page citing al-Majmu’ by Imam al-Nawawi describes the miswak as sunnah even during fasting, but cautions against rinsing so much that water slips down the throat.

A step-by-step checklist before Ramadan

  1. Know your school’s position. If you follow a school, or your mosque does, ask the imam which view it holds on forgetful eating, kaffarah, drops and inhalers.
  2. Sort out medicines early. Speak to your GP or pharmacist about timing doses at suhoor and iftar, and ask whether a longer-acting option exists.
  3. Use a reliable timetable. Hanafi texts treat eating in the belief that Maghrib had come, when it hadn’t, as a day to make up. The timetables page helps you match fasting times to your location.
  4. If you eat by mistake, stop as soon as you remember. Under the Hanafi, Shafi’i and Hanbali views the fast continues; under the Maliki view the day is made up afterwards.
  5. Keep a list of any broken days. Write the date and the reason, so you can make them up with the right count. The printable planners can help.
  6. Ask a qualified scholar about your own case, especially for chronic conditions, repeated medical treatment or anything that may involve kaffarah.

Sources

This article explains what the four Sunni schools say and links its sources. It is not a fatwa. Dates are expected dates and depend on moon sighting where you live. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.