I fast every Monday and Thursday as a voluntary fast, and it happened that one night I ate the pre-dawn meal and went to sleep without drinking, and I woke up an hour after the dawn.
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The questioner : I fast every Monday and Thursday as a voluntary fast, and it happened that one night I ate the pre-dawn meal and went to sleep without drinking, and I woke up an hour after the dawn while I was very thirsty, so I drank and completed the fast until night, knowing that I was aware that an hour had passed since the dawn. Is the fast valid, O honorable Shaykh, or not? And if it is not, is an expiation obligatory upon me?
The Shaykh : The fast is not valid, because fasting must be from the rising of the dawn to the setting of the sun, as Allah the Exalted said:[Al-Baqarah 2:187] Therefore, you have no reward for this day that you fasted because it did not conform to the Shari'ah. You are not sinful in this because it is permissible for a person to break a voluntary fast. You also do not owe an expiation, and an expiation is not obligatory in any fast, even in an obligatory one, unless a man has intercourse with his wife during the day in Ramadan and both are among those for whom fasting is obligatory. In this case, the expiation is obligatory upon him and upon her if she consented. The expiation is freeing a slave, and if he does not find one, then fasting two consecutive months, and if he cannot do that, then feeding sixty poor people.
As for if the husband and wife are not obligated to fast, such as if they are travelers in Ramadan and he has intercourse with her, there is no blame on him or on her, because it is permissible for the traveler to break his fast. However, they must make up that day when they return from the journey, even if it were stipulated that they were fasting on that day while traveling a journey that permits them to break their fast, and then he had intercourse with her. There is no blame on them in that, and they do not owe an expiation; rather, they must make up that day which they broke. Yes.
The questioner : We move on to his second question, and he says in it.
The Shaykh : The fast is not valid, because fasting must be from the rising of the dawn to the setting of the sun, as Allah the Exalted said:
So now, have relations with them and seek that which Allah has decreed for you. And eat and drink until the white thread of dawn becomes distinct to you from the black thread [of night]. Then complete the fast until the sunset.
فَالآنَ بَاشِرُوهُنَّ وَابْتَغُوا مَا كَتَبَ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ وَكُلُوا وَاشْرَبُوا حَتَّى يَتَبَيَّنَ لَكُمُ الْخَيْطُ الأَبْيَضُ مِنَ الْخَيْطِ الأَسْوَدِ مِنَ الْفَجْرِ ثُمَّ أَتِمُّوا الصِّيَامَ إِلَى اللَّيْلِAs for if the husband and wife are not obligated to fast, such as if they are travelers in Ramadan and he has intercourse with her, there is no blame on him or on her, because it is permissible for the traveler to break his fast. However, they must make up that day when they return from the journey, even if it were stipulated that they were fasting on that day while traveling a journey that permits them to break their fast, and then he had intercourse with her. There is no blame on them in that, and they do not owe an expiation; rather, they must make up that day which they broke. Yes.
The questioner : We move on to his second question, and he says in it.