Disliked acts while fasting

Certain acts do not break the fast yet tarnish its value: backbiting, lying, the kiss that stirs desire, excess in rinsing the mouth and nose. This page gathers the acts disliked while fasting, with the position of the four schools and the hadiths concerning them.

Backbiting, tale-bearing, insult and lying

The four imams agree that backbiting and lying are disliked for the faster: they do not break his fast, which remains valid in its ruling (Ibn Hubayra, al-Ifsah 1/388), on the basis of these hadiths:

When the day on which one of you fasts arrives, let him hold no obscene speech and grow not heated; if someone insults him or provokes him, let him say: I am fasting.

reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim, from Abu Hurayra

Whoever does not give up false speech and false conduct, Allah has no need of his giving up his food and drink.

reported by al-Bukhari

Ibn Qudama adds: the faster must keep his fast far from lying, backbiting and insult. Ahmad taught: it befits the faster to guard his fast with his tongue, to shun dispute, to protect it; when they fasted, the early generations stayed in the mosques and said: we are guarding our fast; let him backbite no one and do nothing that wounds it (al-Mughni 4/244).

An-Nawawi rules: whoever backbites during his fast has disobeyed without annulling it, the view of Malik,

Abu Hanifa, Ahmad and all the scholars, with the exception of al-Awza'i, for whom backbiting annuls it and requires the makeup. He relied on the preceding hadiths and on others: "There are faster ones who draw from their fast nothing but hunger" (reported by an-Nasa'i and Ibn Majah, and by al-Hakim who declared it sahih by al-Bukhari's criterion); "Fasting is not from eating and drinking: it is from idle talk and obscenity" (reported by al-Bayhaqi and al-Hakim, who judged it sahih by Muslim's criterion); and a hadith stating: "five things break the faster's fast: backbiting, tale-bearing, lying, the kiss and the infamous oath". The scholars answer that the first texts target the perfection of the fast and the virtue sought from it, obtained by keeping it from idle talk, not its annulment; as for the last, it is an invalid hadith admitted by no one, and al-Mawardi and al-Mutawalli give its meaning: it is the reward that is lost, not the fast itself. In Fath al-Qadir it is stated that a consensus formed on this loss of reward (al-Majmu' 7/597; Fath al-Qadir 2/378).

The kiss and touching with the wife

The four imams agree that kissing is disliked for one who is not certain his desire will not be stirred (al-Ifsah 1/410), on this foundation:

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) would kiss and touch his wife while fasting; yet you are the ones who control their desire best.

reported by al-Bukhari 1826 and Muslim 1106, from Aisha

The divergence concerns one who has no such fear.

Abu Hanifa, ash-Shafi'i and Ahmad in one transmission see no disliked act in it, on Aisha's hadith and on that of Amr ibn Abi Salama: he asked the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): does the faster kiss? He answered: ask Umm Salama. She reported that he used to do it, and the man objected that his past and future had been forgiven, to which the Prophet replied: "By Allah, I fear Allah more than you and show Him more reverence than you" (reported by Muslim 1108). Umar, for his part, came to him and said: I kissed my wife today while fasting, I have committed a great deed; he answered him: "what would you say if you rinsed your mouth with water while fasting? He said: there is no harm in that. He said: then where does this matter come from?" (sahih hadith, cited earlier in this book).

Malik and Ahmad in one transmission declare it disliked even without fear, on the hadith of Aisha cited above. An-Nawawi details: the kiss is disliked only for the one it excites, and leaving it is better in every situation; there is no difference between the young man and the old: the criterion is desire being stirred and fear of ejaculation; kissing the cheek, the mouth or anything else is the same, as is contact by the hand and the embrace. This disapproval amounts to prohibition in the view of the compiler of the Minhaj, the qadi Abu at-Tayyib, al-Abdari and others, and to mere preference in the view of others, a view al-Mutawalli favored; al-Rafi'i holds the prohibition to be the soundest position, and in every case one who kisses without ejaculating sees his fast remain intact, without divergence (al-Majmu' 7/593-594).

Rinsing the mouth and nose without excess

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) forbade excess in rinsing so as to preserve the fast: if water driven with force to the throat were not proscribed while fasting, this prohibition would carry no meaning; one who reaches the throat through forbidden excess resembles one who drinks deliberately. This is the foundation of the Prophet's words to Laqit ibn Sabira: "sniff water up the nostrils strongly, unless you are fasting" (reported by Abu Dawud 2366, at-Tirmidhi 788 and Ibn Majah 407, sahih hadith).

As for water that reaches the throat without excess, the Hanafis, the Malikis and the Shafi'is in one view count it as breaking, on the hadith of Umar cited above and on the hadith of Laqit: one who kisses his wife then ejaculates sees his fast annulled, likewise one who rinses and lets the water reach the interior of his body.

The Shafi'is in their madhhab and the Hanbalis declare his fast intact: the water arrived without his choice and without excess, like flour dust under the sieve, or like a fly entering his throat; an-Nawawi cites the Malikis and the Hanbalis on this case, with the detail of the sources in al-Majmu' 7/540-542. The practical rule follows: rinsing the mouth and nose in moderation puts the fast at no risk, and only excess exposes one to the most cautious view.

Practical note

In practice: backbiting, lying and insult do not annul the fast by the agreement of the four schools, but its reward is lost by a reported consensus, and the faster guards his tongue; the kiss and touching are to be avoided as soon as desire may stir, and they break the fast only upon ejaculation; finally one rinses the mouth and nose with moderation, avoiding sniffing water with force while fasting.