Date : 04-01-2011

Question :

A man has traveled a distance of (81) Km for the purpose of breaking his fast. What is the ruling on this? And is he liable for the fasting concession?


The Answer :

All perfect praise be to Allah The Lord of The Worlds and may His peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all of his family and companions.



The travel's concession is a great grace that Allah, The Exalted, Has Bestowed upon Muslims to spare them hardship in the religion. Normally, grace should be met with gratitude and commitment, and shouldn`t be used as means of bluffing nor as a pretext for avoiding proper performance of religious obligations.



Therefore, the majority of the Muslim jurists stated that the ruling of Sharia regarding the one who travels for the purpose of obtaining fasting or shortening concessions is as follows: He is not excused at all nor permitted to break his fast or shorten prayers on basis of the aforementioned intention, because he has misused the purpose for which those concessions were granted and thus, he was punished contrary to his purpose. Further, they have mentioned this in the jurisprudential rules: "Attempting to legislate concession for a purpose other than the one it was meant for doesn`t make it lawful." And Allah Knows Best.



* For further information in this regard, kindly refer to [Tohfat Al-Muhtaj vol.2/pp.383] for Ibn Al-Haythami and [Kashaf Al-Qinaa' vol./pp.506] for Al-Bahotee Al-Hanbali.