What is your answer to the fatwa that permits high school students to break their fast in Ramadan?

The questioner : In Egypt, the mufti issued a fatwa permitting students in the general secondary education to break their fast in Ramadan, by analogy to the traveler, even thoughThe student : a student might leave his house and the school is right next to the house, and they justify this by citing hardship?

The Shaykh : May Allah protect us from this. These fatwas, in which they deem permissible what Allah has forbidden, are never permissible for a student of knowledge, especially this non-religious knowledge, if that is the correct term, to break his fast in Ramadan while he is a resident. It is not permissible for him to resort to a stratagem by going out of the town to take on the ruling of a traveler, because this falls under the category of stratagems that they call "unjustly using legal stratagems." I say: if there is truly an effort thatThe student : exhausts him while he is fasting, then he must take the measures and means that do not expose him to such an effort. Or, for example, if he is a truly believing Muslim, he should pray the Fajr prayer in congregation, then review the knowledge he needs to review for the exam he is about to take, for two or three hours, depending on his energy after the Fajr prayer. As for sleeping the entire night, and perhaps not waking up for the Fajr prayer at all, or if he does pray it, he prays it after its time, and then he studies during the day, and it is said to him: "It is permissible for you to break your fast?" This is a stratagem against the rulings of Allah and His Shari'ah. The strange thing is that these muftis do not observe the conditions of these students; they do not guide them to the path they should follow so that they can combine preserving the obligatory duty with the preparation required of them because they are about to take an exam. They do not remind them, for example, of the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): You will find that most students stay up until midnight, and this is contrary to the Shari'ah, as you know from his prohibition (peace and blessings be upon him) of sleeping before the 'Isha' prayer and talking after it. Then they sleep after midnight and do not wake up for the Fajr prayer, and then they exhaust themselves during the day, so they issue a fatwa permitting them to break their fast. First: there is no dire necessity for such a fatwa, because what is this knowledge that they review and exert their efforts for the sake of passing? It is not religious knowledge. Even if it were religious knowledge, it is not permissible for them to expose themselves to breaking the fast, as I said in my commentary on the treatise of al-Imam al-Aziz ibn 'Abd al-Salam in my response to al-Ghammari and his comments on the beginning of the Sunan... I said: "The one who is concerned with tracing hadiths without explaining their authenticity or weakness is like the one who performs wudu' but does not pray. Tracing is the means, and knowing the authentic from the weak is the goal. So what is the benefit of tracing if it is accompanied by explaining the grade? Likewise, what is the benefit of these sciences they study if they are not for Allah (Mighty and Majestic)? In summary: it is not permissible for a student of knowledge, even if it is religious knowledge, to break his fast in Ramadan except after paying attention to observing these matters we mentioned. Otherwise, if fasting exhausts him and he fears for his life, then he breaks his fast at that time. Otherwise, he has no right to do so.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good, my Shaykh.