If dawn breaks while a person is in the very act of intercourse and he immediately withdraws, the well-known position in the school of Imam Ahmad is that both a make-up fast and the expiatory penalty are required, because withdrawal itself is deemed intercourse. The majority of scholars, including the other three imams, consider withdrawal not to be intercourse; he must withdraw at once, but no make-up fast or expiation is due.

Just as it is permissible for dawn to break upon a fasting person who is still in a state of major ritual impurity, it is likewise permissible for dawn to break upon a woman whose menstrual or postpartum bleeding has ceased but who has not yet taken the ritual bath.

The wives of the Prophet ﷺ enjoy a special distinction: they conveyed to the ummah a great wealth of knowledge—especially rulings that only they, by virtue of their closeness to him, could have observed. May Allah be pleased with them all.