Fasting When Sick or Travelling: When to Break the Fast and Make It Up
All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the worlds. May Allah send salah and peace upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family and his Companions.
Ramadan may arrive while someone needs medicine during the day, or while a traveller is preparing for a comfortable journey. Both may ask the same questions: Can I break my fast? Must I make up the days later, or feed someone in need instead?
Allah has allowed concessions for illness and travel, but the reason for the concession and what follows it need to be understood. A minor illness is not the same as an illness made worse by fasting. An inability expected to pass is not the same as lasting incapacity. For a qualifying journey, however, the travel concession does not depend on the journey being exhausting. This guide explains those distinctions and answers common practical questions.
The Quranic Concession
Allah says:
{وَمَنْ كَانَ مَرِيضًا أَوْ عَلَى سَفَرٍ فَعِدَّةٌ مِنْ أَيَّامٍ أُخَرَ يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ بِكُمُ الْيُسْرَ وَلَا يُرِيدُ بِكُمُ الْعُسْرَ}
Meaning: Whoever is ill or on a journey is to fast an equal number of other days. Allah intends ease for you, not hardship. Al-Baqarah 2:185, excerpt.
Someone who misses Ramadan fasts because of a temporary illness or qualifying travel must fast the same number of days after Ramadan. Taking a legitimate concession is not sinful. A Muslim does not need to harm themselves to demonstrate commitment to worship.
For the basic obligation, conditions and intention of fasting, see Ramadan Fasting for Beginners.
When May an Ill Person Break the Fast?
The question is how fasting affects the person, not simply what their condition is called. Breaking the fast is permitted when fasting causes significant hardship, is reasonably expected to worsen the illness or delay recovery, or prevents necessary treatment that cannot safely wait until night and involves breaking the fast.
Shaykh Ibn Baz explained that someone whose illness makes fasting difficult, or who needs medicine taken during the day, may break the fast and make it up after recovery.
A minor illness does not permit breaking the fast if fasting neither worsens it nor causes significant hardship. Ordinary hunger and thirst are not sufficient excuses on their own, but they can become dangerous in particular circumstances. The distinction is between normal discomfort and genuine harm.
When Is Breaking the Fast Obligatory?
If there is a well-founded expectation that fasting will threaten the person's life or cause serious harm, they must break the fast, as Ibn Baz explained. Continuing to expose themselves to that danger is not an act of greater devotion.
The person does not need to reach the point of collapse before taking the concession. If warning signs appear, or a competent, trustworthy clinician determines that fasting threatens their safety, necessary treatment should not be postponed until sunset. Seek urgent medical care when needed.
How Is the Risk Assessed?
The risk may be known from clear previous experience, evident symptoms or a reliable medical assessment. A passing worry is not enough to establish harm. Equally, having managed to fast last year is not a reason to dismiss current medical advice: the condition or its treatment may have changed.
If you take regular medicine, discuss fasting with your clinician or pharmacist before Ramadan. Do not stop treatment, combine doses or change their timing yourself. The clinician assesses the health consequences of fasting and treatment; a qualified scholar can help determine your religious duty if the situation is unclear.
Temporary Illness or Lasting Incapacity: Qada or Fidyah?
Illness from Which Recovery Is Expected
Someone expected to become able to fast after treatment or recovery must make up the missed days when able. This is qada. The excuse may continue for months or years, but neither its duration nor the present difficulty of fasting makes feeding a substitute while the inability is expected to pass.
For example, someone who misses five days because of a temporary illness makes up five days after recovery. Legitimately missing those days does not require a two-month expiation or fidyah merely because the fasts were missed.
If the illness excuse has ended before dawn and the person can fast without harm or significant hardship, they must fast that day unless another excuse applies. They resume the remaining Ramadan fasts while able, then make up the earlier days after the month. The concession lasts while its reason remains; missing the start of Ramadan does not permit missing the rest after recovery.
An Inability Not Expected to End
Someone who cannot fast because of lasting incapacity, due to old age or illness as reliably assessed in their circumstances, feeds a poor person for each missed day. This is fidyah. Qada is not required while that lasting inability continues.
Explaining the verse concerning fidyah, Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him and his father, said:
«هُوَ الشَّيْخُ الْكَبِيرُ وَالْمَرْأَةُ الْكَبِيرَةُ لَا يَسْتَطِيعَانِ أَنْ يَصُومَا، فَلْيُطْعِمَانِ مَكَانَ كُلِّ يَوْمٍ مِسْكِينًا».
Meaning: It applies to the elderly man and woman who cannot fast; they should feed a poor person in place of each day. Al-Bukhari 4505, an excerpt from Ibn Abbas's statement, not a saying of the Prophet. Scholars also apply this ruling to an ill person whose inability to fast is not expected to end.
Not every condition described as chronic requires fidyah. Someone with a chronic diagnosis may still be able to fast safely, or to make up the days at another time. Nor is fidyah a payment through which someone capable of fasting can purchase an exemption.
Ibn Baz gave the amount as half a sa of the local staple food for each day, estimated at about 1.5 kilograms. A sa is a measure of volume, so its approximate conversion to weight depends on the food; 1.5 kilograms is not a weight specified in revelation. A trustworthy organisation may be appointed to buy and deliver the food to eligible recipients. For more on feeding and delayed qada, see Missed Ramadan Fasts: Qada, Fidyah and Kaffarah.
When May a Traveller Break the Fast?
A person on a permissible journey that qualifies for the rulings of travel may break the fast and make it up later. Hardship is not a condition of this concession. A comfortable flight or an air-conditioned car does not remove it.
Hamzah ibn Amr al-Aslami asked the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, about fasting while travelling. He replied:
«إِنْ شِئْتَ فَصُمْ وَإِنْ شِئْتَ فَأَفْطِرْ».
Meaning: If you wish, fast; and if you wish, break the fast. Muslim 1121.
A traveller's fast is valid if they can fast without harm; the Prophet both fasted and broke his fast while travelling. Neither someone taking the concession nor an able traveller choosing to fast should be criticised for that choice.
If fasting causes severe hardship, breaking the fast is preferable. If it threatens life or serious harm, breaking it becomes obligatory. On seeing a travelling man surrounded by people and being shaded because of his condition while fasting, the Prophet said:
«لَيْسَ مِنَ الْبِرِّ الصَّوْمُ فِي السَّفَرِ».
Meaning: It is not righteousness to fast while travelling. Al-Bukhari 1946. This report must be read alongside the other reports on travel. It does not prohibit every traveller from fasting; it shows that insisting on fasting in these difficult circumstances is not righteousness.
Planning a Journey Does Not Begin the Concession
A resident does not become entitled to break the fast merely by booking a ticket or packing a bag. According to the ruling given by Ibn Baz, the travel concession begins after leaving the town's continuous built-up area. Reaching an airport that remains within that area does not, by itself, make the person a traveller for this purpose.
Many jurists estimate the travel distance at approximately 80 kilometres, while some scholars determine what counts as travel by customary usage. This is an approximate juristic assessment, not a distance stated in kilometres in a hadith. An ordinary journey within the city is not automatically qualifying travel.
For the distance, intended duration of a stay, and shortening and combining prayers, see Prayer During Travel: Qasr and Jam.
May Someone Break a Fast They Have Already Started?
Yes, if a valid excuse arises during the day. Someone who starts the day healthy and then develops an illness permitting iftar may break the fast and make up the day. Someone who starts fasting and then departs on a qualifying journey may break the fast once the travel concession actually applies, not before leaving the town.
The Prophet set out fasting during the year of the conquest of Makkah and then broke his fast during the journey. Muslim 1113. Starting the fast does not remove the concession if its valid reason arises.
Do not assume that every medicine or medical procedure invalidates fasting; treatments differ. See What Breaks the Fast and What Does Not? for the main examples. Necessary treatment should not be postponed while you try to resolve a fiqh disagreement yourself.
How Are Missed Days Made Up?
Once the excuse has ended, each missed day is replaced by one day of fasting. The days do not have to be consecutive. They may be completed together or separately according to the person's ability, while taking care to finish them rather than repeatedly putting them off.
Aishah, may Allah be pleased with her, said:
«كَانَ يَكُونُ عَلَيَّ الصَّوْمُ مِنْ رَمَضَانَ، فَمَا أَسْتَطِيعُ أَنْ أَقْضِيَ إِلَّا فِي شَعْبَانَ».
Meaning: I would owe fasts from Ramadan and would not be able to make them up until Shaban. Al-Bukhari 1950.
There is time to complete qada before the following Ramadan. Starting sooner helps keep track of the number and discharge the obligation. Someone who is able should not delay beyond the next Ramadan without an excuse. If the excuse continues, there is no sin or extra feeding obligation for that excused delay; the person makes up the days when able. If the inability develops into lasting incapacity not expected to end, the fidyah ruling needs to be applied to the actual circumstances.
Qada is an obligatory fast, so its intention must be made before dawn. The Prophet said:
«مَنْ لَمْ يُجْمِعِ الصِّيَامَ قَبْلَ الْفَجْرِ فَلَا صِيَامَ لَهُ».
Meaning: Whoever has not resolved to fast before dawn has no fast. Abu Dawud 2454, authenticated by al-Albani. The intention belongs in the heart. Resolving to fast the next day as qada is sufficient; no spoken formula is needed.
Record the days you miss and mark each one off when it is completed. Qada cannot be observed on either Eid day or during the days of Tashriq. The specific exception for fasting during Tashriq concerns a pilgrim unable to obtain the required sacrificial offering, not making up Ramadan fasts. The prohibition concerning Eid and the Tashriq exception are recorded in al-Bukhari 1991 and 1997.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a mild headache or cold permit breaking the fast?
The name of the symptom is not enough. If it is mild, fasting does not cause harm and there is no significant hardship, the fast must be completed. If the condition becomes severe, meaningful harm appears or necessary daytime treatment cannot wait, the ruling follows the person's actual circumstances.
I need tablets during the day. Should I leave them until sunset?
Do not alter treatment yourself. Ask your clinician or pharmacist whether it can safely be arranged outside fasting hours. If necessary medicine cannot be postponed, the illness concession applies, with qada when you become able. If omitting it exposes you to serious harm, you must not put yourself in that danger.
Must the clinician assessing the risk be Muslim?
You may benefit from the assessment of a competent, trustworthy clinician who is not Muslim. They explain how fasting affects the illness and treatment. Ibn Baz upheld the concession in a case where doctors, including a non-Muslim doctor, advised an ill person to break the fast. Questions about the religious ruling and what is owed afterwards should be taken to qualified scholars when unclear.
I started fasting but my illness became worse. Must I wait until sunset?
If the illness has become one that permits breaking the fast, you do not have to wait until sunset. Make up the day after recovery. If continuing has become dangerous, you must break the fast and take necessary treatment, even if sunset is close.
I will leave after Fajr. Can I break the fast at home that morning?
While still in your town, you cannot begin a travel concession whose reason has not yet arisen. Intend the fast before dawn and abstain. Once you have left the built-up area on a qualifying journey, you may break it according to the ruling followed here, even though you started the day fasting.
Can I break the fast at the airport before the plane takes off?
The relevant point is leaving your town's built-up area, not entering the departure lounge or having your passport checked. If the airport is outside that area and you have actually left for it on a qualifying journey, the concession has begun. If it is still within that area, it has not yet begun on this basis.
I will stay in another city for a week. Can I use the concession all week?
Under Ibn Baz's ruling, someone intending to stay for more than four days is treated as a resident upon arrival and fasts rather than continuing the travel concession. Scholars have other views on which intended duration ends traveller status. Waiting for a need to be completed without knowing when it will end, and without an intended fixed stay, is a different situation. Ask about your particular arrangement.
I broke the fast while travelling and reached home during the day. What now?
You must make up that day. Ibn Baz preferred the view that you should also abstain for its remaining hours after returning; scholars differ on this point. Abstaining for the rest of the day does not turn it into a complete fast or remove qada. If you reached home without breaking the fast, complete it; do not break it after returning on the basis of a journey that has ended. If a separate excuse remains, such as an illness that permits breaking the fast, its ruling still applies even though you are now a resident.
I travel regularly for work. Does the concession still apply?
Yes, while your journeys qualify and you meet the conditions of traveller status. Repeated travel does not remove the concession. The days missed still require qada; they do not become a feeding obligation merely because you travel frequently. Ibn Baz explained that a driver who often travels has the concession, with fasting required after returning home or beginning a stay that ends traveller status.
May I make up the days in winter or on shorter days?
Yes. A qada day does not have to be as long as the day originally missed. Choose permissible days when you can fast, and finish before the next Ramadan if able. Do not keep delaying until there is too little time, or substitute money when you are able to fast.
I delayed qada without an excuse until the next Ramadan. What do I owe?
Repent for the delay and make up the days; the arrival of another Ramadan does not cancel them. Following rulings reported from a number of Companions, Ibn Baz also required feeding a poor person for each day alongside qada. Scholars differ over whether this additional feeding is obligatory, but feeding does not replace qada. This differs from someone whose excuse continued and prevented qada: an excused delay does not require additional feeding.
Taking the Concession and Fulfilling What Remains
The concession removes hardship without cancelling the duty that follows the end of an excuse. Someone who can make up the days does so; someone with lasting incapacity follows the feeding ruling. Understanding the difference helps an ill person or traveller avoid both harmful overexertion and unnecessary anxiety about qada, fidyah and kaffarah.
We ask Allah to heal the sick among the Muslims and help us worship Him with understanding. May Allah send salah and peace upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family and his Companions.
