An Iftar tent is set up near a mosque in Doha’s Al Hilal area yesterday. Tents of different sizes are being set up at various locations, equipped with air-conditioners and furnishing to host people as they break their fast every evening during the holy month. The tents are sponsored by local charities, private companies or individuals. The fasting month of Ramadan begins today. PICTURE: Jayan Orma
According to the Hadith of Hafsah, one must have a sure intention of fasting the month of Ramadan sometime after the announcement of the beginning of the month and before the Fajr time of its first day. In addition, one may make an intention for fasting the whole month in this night (not just for the first day of the month). If one chooses this option, one should remember that if he/she breaks the fast for some reason, (travelling, being ill, etc.), one must remake and confirm his/her intention before continuing to fast the rest of Ramadan. In light of this point, two important and recurring situations need to be explained:
1. If a person goes to sleep, the night Ramadan was most likely to begin, without being sure it will actually begin the next day (after putting a reasonable effort into trying to determine that), and if after he woke up for the Fajr (Dawn) Prayer, news came that it actually, was the first day of Ramadan, that person should in fact start fasting and consider that day to be his first day of fasting even though he did not make an intention for it. This is an important point to keep in mind about the meaning of intention and how it is made: intention is completely dependent on knowledge - without it, it cannot be made. And in answer to the opinion that required one to fast but should later make that day up (make Qadhaa) because it lacked intention, we say: one can either fast that day or not fast it. If one does not fast it, one would be failing to observe an obligatory fast which is Haraam. And if one fast it, then one should not need to make a Qadhaa for it, which is what we are saying. They require the Qadhaa because of lack of proper intention, and we say no one in the said situation would be able to have an intention because it was not sure when Ramadan would begin, and having a conditional intention is possible since intention means certainty in determination.
2. If a traveller arrives home, a woman becomes clean from her menses or postpartum bleeding, or a sick person recovers, after Fajr on any of Ramadan’s days, he or she should not fast that day. The only exception to this is the case of the traveler who knows he will be back home during that day and makes intention to fast it - and not eat, of course while travelling that day. Both of these conclusions are correct because they both satisfy the conditions necessary for the validity of any fasting; namely having the intention to fast any day before it begins, i.e., during the night preceding it. In all of these cases, however, if one does not ascertain his intention for fasting during the night, he/she should not fast that day and make up for it after the end of the fasting month.
But there are some scholars who indicate all fasters involved in these situations must fast the moment their excuse is gone But then they have to make up for later since they have begun the day without having the proper intention. However, this opinion is incorrect and invalid since it asks of a Mukallaf (mature Muslim) to carry out an obligation twice - this is an impossibility in our Shari’ah; a situation that lacks proof both on textual and rational grounds. If one has to make up for the day ha fasted because one condition was not fulfilled properly, one should not have fasted to begin with. All we ask of a person in that situation not to eat or drink publicly for that may hurt him if people saw the person but did not know of situation he was in and that he/she is no obligation to fast.
All of this discussion so far dealt with the subject of ascertaining an intention for fasting ahead of the day of fasting. In fact, the points associated with condition are much deeper and of far more extension than what was covered here.
