He also forbade the fasting person to engage in obscenity, clamorous shouting, insults, or responding to insults in kind, and instructed him to say to anyone who insulted him: “I am fasting” (1). One view is that he should say this aloud, which is the more evident interpretation. Another is that he should say it inwardly, reminding himself that he is fasting. A third is that he should say it aloud when observing an obligatory fast, but inwardly when observing a voluntary fast, as this is less likely to involve ostentation.

Section

He travelled during Ramadan, sometimes fasting and sometimes breaking his fast (2), and gave his Companions the choice between the two (3).

When they drew near their enemy, he would instruct them to break their fast so that they would have the strength to face them (4).

If a similar situation arose while they were not travelling, and breaking their fast would strengthen them to face their enemy, would they be permitted to do so? There are two views. The one best supported by the evidence is that they may do so. This was the view chosen by Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah (5), and it was the ruling he gave the Muslim armies when they faced the enemy outside Damascus (6). There is no doubt that breaking the fast for this reason is more justified than breaking it merely on account of travel. Indeed, permission for the traveller to break his fast points to its permissibility in this situation, where there is even greater justification for it: in the former case, the strength gained benefits the traveller alone, whereas here it benefits both him and the Muslims; and because the hardship of jihad is greater