WHEN IS FASTING NOT OBLIGATORY (WĀJIB)

Imam Khamenei

Fasting on the day of Ashura:

Q1: Is it allowed to fast on the day of Ashura?

Answer: It is reprehensible (makruh).

Fast of silence:

Q2: I have heard that performing fasts of silence is prohibited (haram), but some say it is permissible (halal) in case it is a vow. Is this true?

Answer: it is prohibited (haram).

Fast performed by someone’s wife and children:

Q3: One of the prohibited fasts is the fast performed by the wife if it causes trouble for fulfilling the rights of the husband, and the fast performed by offspring if it causes trouble or annoyance for the parents. Now, the question is, does this rule only apply to mustahab fasts, or does it also include wajib (obligatory) fasts for a person capable of performing it?

Answer: This is not applicable to wajib fasts.

Ayatollah Sistani

Ruling 1. Fasting is not obligatory for someone who finds fasting excessively difficult due to old age, nor is it necessary for such a person to make up the fasts. However, for each day [that he does not fast], he must give one mudd of food – i.e. wheat, barley, bread, and suchlike – to a poor person. If fasting for him is not possible at all [as opposed to being excessively difficult], it is not necessary that he give fidyah.

Ruling 2. If someone who has not fasted on account of old age is able to fast after the month of Ramadan, the recommended precaution is that he should make up the fasts that he did not keep.

Ruling 3. If someone has an illness that makes him very thirsty and he cannot bear being thirsty, or it is excessively difficult for him to bear it, then fasting is not obligatory for him. However, in the second case, he must give one mudd of food to a poor person for each missed fast; and in the event that he is able to fast afterwards, it is not obligatory for him to make them up.

Ruling 4. Fasting is not obligatory for a pregnant woman approaching the time of delivery if it is harmful for her or the unborn child. Such a woman must give one mudd of food to a poor person for each missed fast, and she must make up the fasts she did not keep.

Ruling 5. If fasting is harmful for a woman who is breastfeeding her child and who has little milk – whether she is the child’s mother or wet nurse, or someone who is breastfeeding the child without getting paid – or, if fasting is harmful for the child that she is breastfeeding, it is not obligatory for her to fast and she must give one mudd of food to a poor person for each missed fast and she must make up the fasts she did not keep. However, based on obligatory precaution, this rule only applies to the case where giving milk to the child is limited to this way. Therefore, if there is another way of giving milk to the child – for example, a number of women participate in breastfeeding the child, or the child is fed with the aid of a bottle – then affirming this rule is problematic (maḥall al ishkāl) [i.e. based on obligatory precaution, it is not permitted for such a woman to not fast].

Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi

Forbidden Fasts

Ruling 1: Two days in the year, fasting is forbidden: Eidul-Fitr (the beginning of the month of Shawwal) and Eidul-Qurbaani (the tenth of the month of Zil-Hijjah).

Ruling 2: The fasting of a woman (Mustahabb Fast) in the situation which the rights of her husband are ruined. Without his permission, it is not permissible. If his right is not ruined, (according to obligation precaution) also the permission of the husband is required. Likewise, the Mustahabb fast of children, if it causes harm for the father and mother, it is not permissible. However, getting permission from them is not required.

Ruling 3: A person who knows that fasting is injurious for him, it is necessary to abandon the fast. If he fasts, it is not correct. Likewise, if he does not have certainty. Regarding having probability that the fast is injurious, whether this probability is obtained from the experience of persons or from the statement of a doctor.