Chapter: What Invalidates the Fast and Necessitates Expiation

Whoever eats, …

His statement, “Chapter: What Invalidates the Fast,” means: what nullifies it. Fasting includes both obligatory and voluntary fasts.

The scholars have different ways of naming chapters whose meanings are the same, though their wording differs. Thus, in the chapter on ablution, they call invalidating acts “nullifiers”; in that on ritual bathing, they call them “that which necessitates ritual bathing”; in the chapter on prayer, they call them “invalidators of the prayer”; in fasting, they call them “invalidators of the fast”; and in the chapter on consecration for pilgrimage, they call them “prohibitions of consecration.” All of these have the same meaning.

That which invalidates the fast is termed by the scholars “things that break the fast.” Their fundamental categories are three, which Allah mentioned in His saying:

“Now lie with them and seek what Allah has decreed for you. Eat and drink until the white thread of dawn becomes distinct to you from the black thread. Then complete the fast until nightfall.” [al-Baqarah 2:187]

The scholars are unanimously agreed that these three invalidate the fast. As for anything besides them, discussion of it will come, Allah willing.

His statement, “and necessitates expiation”: the definite article in “the expiation” refers to the expiation understood in the mind, namely the well-known expiation: freeing a slave; if he cannot find one, then fasting for two consecutive months; and if he is unable, then feeding sixty needy persons.

His statement, “Whoever eats”: “whoever” is a conditional particle, and its apodosis is his statement, “his fast is invalidated.” Eating is the introduction of something into the stomach by way of the mouth.