THINGS WHICH MAKES A FAST VOID

There are nine acts which invalidate fasts:
(i) Eating and drinking.
(ii) Sexual intercourse.
(iii) Masturbation (istimna) which means self abuse, resulting in ejaculation.
(iv) Ascribing false things to Almighty Allah, or His Prophet or to the successors of the Holy Prophet.
(v) Swallowing thick dust.
(vi) Immersing one’s head completely in water.
(vii) Remaining in Janabat or Haidh or Nifas till the Adhan for Fajr prayers.
(viii) Enema with liquids.
(ix) Vomiting.

Details of these acts will be explained in the following articles:

(i) EATING AND DRINKING. 

• If a person eats or drinks something intentionally, while being conscious of fasting, his fast becomes void, irrespective of whether the thing which he ate or drank was usually eaten or drunk and it is more or less; even if a person, who is fasting, takes the tooth brush out of his mouth and then puts it back into his mouth, swallowing its liquid, his fast will be void, unless the moisture in the tooth brush mixes up with the saliva in such a way that it may no longer be called an external wetness.
• If a person who is fasting eats or drinks something forgetfully, his fast does not become invalid but the moment he realizes he should immediately throw out the food or drink from his mouth.
• If a person observing fast intentionally swallows something which remained in between his teeth, his fast will be invalidated. Note: If a person knows that some particles of food which have remained in between his teeth, will go down into his stomach during the day, then he must clean his teeth with toothpick.
• Swallowing saliva does not invalidate a fast, although it may have collected in one’s mouth owing to thoughts about sour things, etc..
• There is no harm in swallowing one’s phlegm or mucous from head and chest as long as it does not come up to one’s mouth. However, if it reaches one’s mouth, the obligatory precaution is that one should not swallow it.

(ii) SEXUAL INTERCOURSE.

• Sexual intercourse invalidates the fast, even if the penetration is as little as the tip of the male organ, and even if there has been no ejaculation.
• A person who indulges in courtship with an intention to allow semen to be discharged will complete his fast and also observe its qadha, even if semen is not discharged.
• If a fasting person indulges in courtship without the intention of allowing semen to be discharged, his fast is in order, even if semen may be discharged unexpectedly. However, if he is not sure about the discharge and it takes place, then his fast is void.

(iii) ISTIMNA (MASTURBATION).

• If a person, who is observing fast, performs masturbation, his fast becomes void. 
• If a person involves himself in masturbation with the intention of allowing semen to be discharged, even if he does not discharge, his fast will be void.
• If semen is discharged from the body of a person involuntarily, his fast does not become void.

(iv) ASCRIBING LIES TO ALLAH, HIS PROPHET AND TO THE SUCCESSORS OF THE HOLY PROPHET.

• If a person who is observing fast, intentionally ascribes something false to Allah, the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.w.) or his vicegerents (a.s.), verbally or in writing or by making a sign, his fast becomes void, even if he may at once retract and say that he has uttered a lie or may repent for it. And, as a recommended precaution, he should refrain from imputing lies to Bibi Fatema Zahra (a.s.) and all the Prophets and their successors.
• If a person quotes something as the word of Allah or of the Holy Prophet with the belief that it is true, but realizes later that it is false, his fast does not become void.

(v) LETTING DUST REACH ONE’S THROAT.

• On the basis of obligatory precaution, allowing thick dust to reach one’s throat makes one’s fast void, whether the dust is of something which is halal to eat, like flour, or something which is haraam to consume like dust or earth.
• Allowing thin dust to reach one’s throat will not invalidate the fast.
• As an obligatory precaution, a person who is observing fast, should not allow the smoke of cigarettes, tobacco, and other similar things to reach his throat.

(vi) IMMERSING ONE’S HEAD IN WATER.

• If a person intentionally immerses his entire head in the water, his fast is known to be void, even if the rest of his body remains out of water. But this act does not invalidate the fast; it is a makrooh act, and as a measure of precaution, should be avoided.
• If a fasting person immerses his head under water with the niyyat of ghusl, both his fast and ghusl will be in order.

(vii) REMAINING IN JANABAT OR HAIDH OR NIFAS TILL FAJR TIME.

• If a person in janabat does not take ghusl intentionally till the time of fajr prayers, his/her fast becomes void. And if a person, whose obligation is to do tayammum,willfully does not do it, his/her fast will also be void.
• If a person enters the state of janabat during a night in the month of Ramadhan, and does not take ghusl intentionally till the time left before Adhan is short, he/she should perform tayammum and observe the fast. However, it is a recommended precaution that its qadha is also given.
• If a person is in janabat during a night in Ramadhan and knows that if he goes to sleep he will not wake up till fajr, he should not sleep before performing ghusl and if he sleeps without performing ghusl and does not wake up till fajr, his fast is void, and qadha and kaffarah become obligatory on him.
• When a person in janabat goes to sleep in a night of Ramadhan and then wakes up, the obligatory precaution is that if he is not sure about waking up again, he should not go to sleep before performing ghusl, even if he has a faint hope that he might wake up before fajr if he sleeps again.
• If a person in janabat in the night of Ramadhan feels certain or fairly hopeful that if he goes to sleep he will wake up before the time of fajr prayers, and is determined to do ghusl upon waking up, and oversleeps with that determination till the time of fajr prayers, his fast will be in order.
• If a person in janabat sleeps and wakes up during a night of Ramadhan and is certain or fairly hopeful that if he sleeps again, he will wake up before the time of fajr prayers, with full determination to do ghusl after waking up, and oversleeps till the time of fajr, he should observe the qadha of the fast of that day. And if he goes to sleep for the third time and does not wake up till the time of fajr prayers, it is obligatory on him to observe the qadha as well as give the kaffarah, as a recommended precaution.
• When a person becomes mohtalim during sleep, the first, second and third sleep means the sleep after waking up; and the sleep in which he became mohtalim will not be reckoned to be the first sleep.
• If a person observing fast becomes mohtalim during day time, it is not obligatory on him to do ghusl at once.
• When a person wakes up in the month of Ramadhan after the fajr prayers and finds that he has become mohtalim his fast is in order, even if he knows that he became mohtalim before the fajr prayers.
• If a person whose obligation is tayammum after getting into the state of janabat, after performing tayammum it is not necessary for him/her to stay awake till the time of fajr prayers.
• A person who has touched a dead body can observe fast without having done ghusl for touching a dead body, and his fast does not become void even if he touches the dead body during the fast.

FOR WOMEN ONLY

• If a woman becomes paak from haidh or nifas before the time of fajr prayers in the month of Ramadhan and does not do ghusl - or in the case of time being short, tayammum - intentionally, her fast will be void.
• If a woman becomes paak from haidh or nifas just near the time of fajr prayers in the month of Ramadhan, and has no time left for ghusl or tayammum, her fast is valid.
• If a woman gets paak from haidh or nifas after the fajr or if haidh or nifas begins during the day,  though just near the maghrib time, her fast is void.
• If a woman forgets to do ghusl for haidh or nifas and remembers it after a day or more, the fasts that she has observed will be valid.
• If a woman is in a sate of medium or excessive istihadha, her fast will be valid even if she does not carry out the rules of ghusls she is normally required to undertake when she is in the state of medium or excessive istihadha.

(viii) ENEMA. 

• If liquid enema is taken by a fasting person, his fast becomes void even if he/she is obliged to take it for the sake of treatment.

(ix) VOMITING.

• If a fasting person vomits intentionally his fast becomes void, though he may have been obliged to do so on account of sickness. However, the fast does not become void, if one vomits  forgetfully or involuntarily.
• If a fasting person is certain that if he belches, something will come out from the throat, he should not, as a precaution, belch intentionally, but there is no harm in his belching if he is not certain about it.
• If a fasting person belches and something comes from his throat into the mouth, he should throw it out, and if it is swallowed unintentionally, his fast is in order.