Fasting period
Legal fasting It is abstaining from things that break the fast – such as food, drink, and sexual intercourse – with the intention of starting dawn until sunset, then all of that is permissible throughout the night. This is explained by the Almighty’s saying: And eat and drink until the white thread of dawn becomes distinct to you from the black thread, then complete the fast until nightfall. ﴾ [البقرة: 187].
The Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: ((If night approaches from here, and day approaches from here, then the fasting person has broken his fast))[1].
Breaking the fast was permissible in the beginning of Islam from sunset until the fasting person slept. If he slept, food, drink, and sexual intercourse were forbidden to him until sunset of the next day. This was difficult for some of the Companions. This is demonstrated by what was narrated by Al-Baraa bin Azib – may God be pleased with him – who said: The companions of Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace, used to say that if a man was fasting, he attended breakfast, and he slept before breaking his fast, he did not eat all night or day until evening, and Qays bin Sarmah Al-Ansari was He was fasting, so he prepared for breakfast, and he came to his wife and said to her: Do you have food? She said: No, but go and I will order for you. It is permissible for you to have sexual intercourse with your wives on the night of the fast. ﴾ [البقرة: 187][2] They rejoiced greatly over it, and the following verse was revealed: And eat and drink until the white thread becomes distinct to you from the black thread. ﴾ [البقرة: 187]What is meant by the black thread and the white thread is the blackness of the night and the whiteness of the day. He said in Al-Mughni: (The prescribed fasting is abstaining from things that break the fast from the rise of the second dawn until sunset, until he said, commenting on the verse:) until the white thread becomes distinct to you from the black thread ﴾; Meaning, the whiteness of the day comes from the blackness of the night, and this happens with the rising of dawn… until he said: The white thread is the morning, and suhoor does not occur until before dawn… and the day that must be fasted is from the rising of dawn until the setting of the sun.) [3].
God Almighty has conditioned the ruling on an easy matter that everyone understands and does not need arithmetic calculation or astronomical measurement. When the night approaches and what resembles a black thread remains, and the day approaches and what resembles a white thread appears from it, it is obligatory to abstain and forbid eating, drinking, sexual intercourse, and all other things that break the fast until the sun sets, and this is a clear and prominent sign that does not require learning and knowledge, and so all matters of legislation are based on ease and tolerance. And God Almighty spoke the truth when He said: And He has not placed upon you any difficulty in religion ﴾ [الحج: 78]; Ibn Jarir said in the interpretation of the noble verse: As for his saying: Then complete the fast until nightfall ﴾ [البقرة: 187]For God Almighty mentioned that the end of fasting is the approach of night, just as He defined breaking the fast and the permissibility of eating, drinking and intercourse, and the beginning of fasting as the beginning of the day and the beginning of the end of the night, thus indicating that there is no fasting at night, just as there is no breaking the fast during the day on the days of fasting.[4].
[1] Narrated by Al-Bukhari and Muslim, Sahih Al-Bukhari, vol. 3, p. 32, and Sahih Muslim, vol. 3, p. 132.
[2] Narrated by Al-Bukhari; See: Sahih Al-Bukhari, vol. 3, p. 25, of the first volume.
[3] Al-Mughni, vol. 4, p. 325, with easy editing.
[4] Jami’ al-Bayan on the Interpretation of the Qur’an, vol. 3, p. 532.