Fasting

Every accountable Muslim is obligated to fast the month of Ramadan. The fasting of a menstruating or postpartum-bleeding woman is not valid; however, they have to make up the missed days.

Even if fasting is not tedious, it is permissible for the traveler of a shortening distance (qasr) not to fast. Breaking the fast is permissible for the sick person, the pregnant woman, and the nursing woman who cannot bear the hardship of fasting. However, making up the missed days is obligatory.

It is obligatory:

• Each night to make the intention to fast the following day;
• To obtain from sexual intercourse, masturbation, and inserting any substance into the head or the body cavity through an open inlet, excluding one’s pure, tahir saliva while inside the mouth.

One’s fasting is valid as long as one does not become insane, even if it were for a moment, and if one does lose consciousness the whole day, ie. From dawn until sunset. Also retreat from religion Islam during the day of fasting invalidates one’s fasting.

It is invalid to fast the day of the Feast of Fitr (^Id-ul-Fitr), the day of the Feast of Adha (^Id-ul-Adha), and the three days after the day of Adha (Tashriq). It is also invalid to fast the last half of Sha^ban and the day of Doubt, except if one joins the fasting of these with those before them, or if one is fasting for an expiation (kaffarah), make up (qada’), vow (nadhr), or habitual rewardable practice (wird), like the one who usually fasts Mondays and Thursdays.

Invalidating the fasting of one day of Ramadan by engaging in sexual intercourse without an excuse is sinful. One must make it up immediatly, and one must fulfil an expiation of dhihar. The expiation of dhihar is to free a Muslim slave; if one is unable one fasts two consecutive lunar months; and if one is unable one feeds sixty poor Muslims. To feed sixty poor Muslims means to give every one of them a mudd of wheat or another grain – whichever is the most common staple food in that town. The mudd is the fill of a joined pair of average-sized, cupped hands.

Zakah of Fitr

The Zakah of Fitr is due on every Muslim who is alive part of Ramadan and part of Shawwal. The due Zakah for each is a sa^ of the most common staple food of that country, (sa^ is equivalent to four mudd). It is an obligation upon the Muslim to pay the due Zakah for himself and his Muslim dependents if on the day of the Feast of Fitr (^Id-ul-Fitr) and the night after it he has enough money to meet his debts, clothing, lodging, and sustenance, and the sustenance of those whom he must support.

For all types of Zakah, the intention is obligatory upon setting one’s Zakah aside. Zakah must be paid to the Muslims among the eight categories of the people deserving of Zakah, who are in the town where the money is. The eight categories deserving of Zakah are:

• The poor who earn less than half of their basic needs (al-fuqara’).
• The poor who earn half, but less than all of their basic needs (al-masakin).
• The Zakah workers who are assigned by the caliph (al-amiluna ^alayha);
• The new converts to Islam whose hearts are to be reconciled (al-mu’allafatu qulubuhum);
• The slaves who are short in satisfying their contract for purchasing their freedom from their owners (ar-riqab);
• Those who are unable to pay their debts (al-gharimun);
• The volunteer fighters (fi sabilillah);
• The travellers who do not have enough to enable them to reach their destination (ibn-us-sabil).

It is neither permissible nor valid to pay Zakah to other than those eight types of people spicifically mentioned; that is why it is not valid to pay Zakah to any charitable project to meet this obligation.

The Zakah of Fitr must be paid before sunset of the day of Fitr, and one may pay it starting from the first day of Ramadan.