Chapter: What is unlawful for the fasting person, what invalidates the fast, and what does not

In the Sacred Law, fasting means abstaining from eating, drinking, and sexual intercourse; these three constitute its obligatory core.

Its recommended etiquette is that the fasting person avoid false testimony, back-biting, obscene speech, and anything else unfitting in word or deed.

Whoever eats, drinks, or has intercourse out of forgetfulness, or on the basis of a sincere but mistaken interpretation, during the daytime of Ramadan is required only to make up that day. The same applies to every obligatory fast; but if the fast was voluntary, nothing at all is due.

Some have said that a person who forgetfully has intercourse in Ramadan must perform an expiation along with making up the day. This was the view of ʿAbd al-Malik, who reported it from Mālik, yet the earlier ruling is the authoritative position of the school.

A nocturnal emission, whether in men or women, does not break the fast. Menstruation, however, if it begins while one is fasting, nullifies the fast, and fasting during menstruation is invalid; the woman must make up the missed fast after she is purified.

Whoever deliberately and while aware of his fast eats, drinks, or has intercourse: if the fast was supererogatory, he must only make it up. The same holds for any obligatory fast other than Ramadan—no expiation is required, though he bears sin and disobedience. If the breach occurs in Ramadan, he must both make up the day and perform the expiation. The expiation consists of emancipating a slave, or fasting two consecutive months, or feeding sixty poor persons; any one of these three, once carried out, is sufficient.