and the same meaning is confirmed by His word, Exalted be He: “But He will call you to account for what your hearts have earned” (Al-Baqarah 2:225), whereas forgetfulness is not something the heart earns.
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The expression that “Allah fed him and gave him drink” means that, out of His grace, Allah made that morsel of food or sip of water easily available when the servant forgot he was fasting. Thus this lawful provision was sent from Allah Himself, as occurs in the wording recorded by al-Tirmidhi (721): “It was only sustenance that Allah brought to him, and no make-up is required.” Forgetfulness and error are unavoidable acts for which the law does not assign responsibility or the consequences thereof to the doer—except that, when someone else’s property is destroyed, compensation is required as a preventive measure, because people’s rights are founded on strictness and indemnity.
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Just as the one who eats or drinks out of forgetfulness is not required to make up the fast, he is likewise exempt from any expiatory offering (kaffārah). The kaffārah was legislated to atone for slips and sins and to mend the shortcomings that occur in acts of worship. Whoever does such an act forgetfully has incurred neither sin nor deficiency in his worship that would call for atonement or repair. Moreover, the kaffārah itself is an act of worship and is only prescribed by explicit revelation, and no such text exists except with regard to intercourse during the daytime of Ramadan, in deference to the sanctity of that particular time.
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The Prophet’s statement, “Whoever is overcome by vomiting, no make-up is due from him,” proves that being compelled to break one’s fast does not invalidate it. Since there is neither intention nor deliberate choice, the act is not ascribed to the person. The hadith states: “My nation has been excused for mistakes, forgetfulness, and what they are coerced into.”
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By contrast, whoever deliberately induces vomiting must make up the fast, because he has intentionally broken it. Shaykh al-Islam said: He forbade the fasting person to expel that which nourishes and strengthens him—namely food and drink—since expelling it diminishes and weakens the body. When it leaves him it harms him, so he has transgressed in his act of worship and has not observed it properly.
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The ruling that eating or drinking forgetfully does not break the fast is the position of the three imams and the majority of scholars. Some Mālikīs declined to act upon the hadith on the grounds that it is a solitary report (khabar wāḥid).