A man who had intercourse with his wife during the day in Ramadan but did not ejaculate, and who was unaware of the ruling and its punishment, knowing only that intercourse with ejaculation is forbidden: what is the ruling, and if he owes an expiation, what is the amount for each poor person?

The questioner : A questioner says: A man had intercourse with his wife during the day in Ramadan but did not ejaculate. He was unaware of this ruling and its punishment, but he knew that intercourse with ejaculation is forbidden. What is the ruling? Note: If he owes an expiation, what is the amount for each poor person?

The Shaykh : The stronger opinion is that if a person commits one of the things that break the fast, or one of the prohibitions in the state of ihram, or one of the things that invalidate the prayer, while he is ignorant of it, then he owes nothing. This is based on the saying of Allah the Exalted: So Allah said: Therefore, this man who had intercourse with his wife during the day in Ramadan, if he was ignorant of the ruling and thought that the forbidden intercourse was only that which involved ejaculation, then he owes nothing. However, if he knew that intercourse was forbidden but did not know that it carried an expiation, then he owes the expiation. This is because there is a difference between ignorance of the ruling and ignorance of the punishment. Ignorance of the punishment does not excuse a person, whereas ignorance of the ruling does excuse a person. For this reason, the scholars said: If a person drinks an intoxicant thinking that it does not intoxicate, or thinking that it is not forbidden, then he owes nothing. But if he knows that it is an intoxicant and that it is forbidden, but does not know that he will be punished for it, then he is subject to the punishment, and it is not dropped from him. Based on this, we say to the questioner: If you did not know that it is forbidden for you to have intercourse even without ejaculation, then you owe nothing, and neither does your wife, if she is like you in her ignorance.
Yes.