Ramadan: the first days
The first week's questions: the intention, what breaks the fast, suhoor and iftar, and fasting on the road.
A fast begins with small practical questions before it becomes a habit. When exactly to stop eating, whether a forgotten sip breaks it, what counts as an excuse. This set gathers the answers readers reach for most in those first days.
Each entry is a short summary of a full answer on Ftawy, with the link to that answer at the bottom. The set routes you to them; it does not rule on anything itself.
SeasonRamadan
In this collection
- Is it permissible to complete a fard (obligatory) fast after intending to fast subsequent to the Fajr athan, and would this fast be counted?
- If sleep overtakes a person before confirming the intention to fast, and mucus is later swallowed due to habit or difficulty breathing, how is the validity of the fast viewed, What is the ruling on making up a missed fast (qadaa’) in this situation?
- Is a girl's fasting valid if she intended to fast on the first night of Ramadan but forgot to specify the intention to fast before Fajr due to her preoccupation with her grandfather's death, knowing that she had suhoor with the intention of fasting?
- Is the intention for a make-up fast (qada') valid if the intention for fasting was specified two days before the fast, then the intention was recalled on the morning of the fast day?
- Does feeling sourness at the back of the tongue, and the presence of a yellow color with saliva when spitting, along with intentionally swallowing the saliva while it is present, break a fasting person's fast?
- Does the emission of pre-seminal fluid (madhy), which is not semen, break the fast of a fasting person if it is emitted due to kissing one's wife or seeing something that arouses desire?
- What is the ruling of the Shari’ah regarding someone who believes that smoking does not invalidate the fast of a fasting person, relying on several arguments, including the absence of a clear religious text, that smoke does not reach the stomach like food, that saying it breaks the fast would necessitate breaking the fast for one who smells exhaust fumes, and that it provides ease for smokers?
- What is the ruling of the Shari'ah concerning a pregnant woman who intentionally induced vomiting to alleviate pregnancy symptoms, being unaware that doing so invalidates the fast, and has now stopped doing it? Is she required to make up the fast (qada'), or both make up the fast and offer expiation (qada' and kaffarah), or is nothing required of her?
- What is the ruling on muezzins raising their voices with loudspeakers with the words "Suhur, Suhur" to alert people for Suhur, and also on some individuals walking through the streets with instruments for the purpose of waking people for Suhur, and is there reward in these actions?
- Is it Sunnah to have Suhoor on the day of Eid al-Fitr?
Updated Sep 5, 2026