[In al-Mughnī, al-Muwaffaq al-Dīn Abī Muḥammad Abdullāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Qudāmah al-Ḥanbalī رحمه الله] said, “When one travels during a day of Ramadhān are they allowed to break that day’s fast? There are two reports [from Imām Aḥmad رحمه الله] concerning this, the more authentic being that is it permissible. This is the statement of cAmr ibn Sharḥbīl, al-Shacbī, Isḥāq, Dāwūd, and Ibn al-Mundhir. The second report is that it is not allowed for the individual to break their fast. This is the statement of Makḥūl, al-Zuhrī, Yaḥyā al-Anṣārī, Mālik, al-Awzācī, Shāficī, and Aṣḥāb al-Rā’ī [i.e. the Aḥnāf]. This is because fasting is an act of worship that changes due to residence and travel. When these two states [i.e. residence and travel] come together during [a fast] the ruling of [being in] residence dominates, as in the case of ṣalāh.”
He further says, “Our evidence is what cUbayd ibn Jubayr narrated: I was sailing with Abū Buṣrah al-Ghifārī [may Allāh be pleased with him] on a ship from Fusṭāṭ [to Alexandria] during the month of Ramadhān. [We] raised anchor, and sometime later his breakfast was brought, but he had not passed the houses so that one could call it a journey.
He [told me]: Come near [to the food, and eat with us].
I responded: Don’t you see the houses?
Abu Buṣrah asked: Do you have some distaste for the sunnah of the Mesenger of Allāh صلى الله عليه و سلم?” (Abū Dāwūd [كتاب الصيام، باب متى يفطر المسافر إذا خرج])
And [also that which is narrated] from Muḥammad ibn Kacb:
‘I came to Anas ibn Mālik [may Allāh be pleased with him] during the month of Ramadhān. He had intentions to travel [somewhere], and his riding camel had been prepared and he had put on his traveling clothes. Suddenly, he called for food, and ate [it]. I asked him: [Is this a] sunnah? He replied: [This is a] sunnah.’ (Tirmīdhī [آبواب الصوم, باب من أكل ثم خرج سفرا], and he classified it as Ḥasan Ṣaḥīḥ)
Since [travel] is one of the two text based [reasons] for breaking one’s fast, when it occurs during the course of the day it makes it permissible [to break one’s fast] similar to sickness. However, it is not permissible for one to break their fast until they put the houses behind them and come out from the midst of [the town’s] buildings. al-Ḥasan said: One can break their fast in their house on the day they intend to leave, if they wish. Something similar is reported from ‘Aṭā. Ibn Abdul-Bar said: al-Hasan’s view is shādh, and it’s opposite has [also] been narrated from him.”
I [i.e. Imām Zafar Aḥmad al-Uthmānī رحمه الله] say: Do you think that Abu Baṣrah is an evidence for al-Ḥasan just like the narration of Anas (may Allāh be pleased with both of them)?
If so, [know that] Abu Baṣrah called [what he was on a] journey while he had not passed the houses, and [Imām] Aḥmad does not consider this to be permissible. [As for] the narration of Anas [it] is clear on the fact that one can break their fast at home before setting out.
Interpreting this as [Anas] having come out of the town and being [completely] outside of it when Muḥammad ibn Kacb came to him at that residence is an addition [to the narration] that has no proof [for it].
Making deductive analogy of travel on sickness is inappropriate because travel does not resemble sickness. Travel is an action one does, and is self-imposed by the individual, while sickness is something that happens to one involuntarily and thus one is excused, [and this is not the case] with travel which is [something] voluntary.
If one were in ṣalāh and became sick, it is permissible for them to pray sitting, but if one were praying in the open space of a town, while a resident, and then made intentions to travel while one was making ṣalāh, one cannot shorten [one’s prayer].
As for the statement of al-Muwaffaq, “Their deductive analogy on ṣalāh is not sound since fasting is distinct from ṣalāh due to the fact that ṣalāh must be completed because of its intention as opposed to fasting,”(3:20) this is the core of the disagreement since, according to us, [the necessity of] completing one’s fast is due to the intention. If one breaks their fast then they must make it up because of the general nature of His, Exalted is He, statement, “And do not nullify your good deeds,”1 fasting being one of those good deeds.
The response to the opposition’s evidence
The response to the narrations of Abu Baṣrah and Anas (may Allāh be pleased with both of them) is that they did not intend to fast those days and got up in the morning having resolved not to fast because [they were] traveling. When this is the case there is no problem with eating at home and inside of town.
In al-Fatḥ, al-Muḥaqqiq [Kamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn cAbdul-Wāḥid al-Ḥanafī رحمه الله] said: Know that the traveller’s allowance to break their fast is for when they did not intend to fast. When they made intentions to fast during the night, and they woke up in the morning without breaking [this] resolution before Fajr, they became a person who was fasting, thus it is not permissible for them to break their fast that day. However, if they do [break their fast] there is no expiation (kafārah) to be made.2
Source: Aḥkām al-Qur’ān of Muḥaddith Thufur Aḥmad al-Uthmānī, Dār al-Qur’ān wa al-cUlum al-Islāmiyyah, 1:219-220
[1]: Surah Muḥammad, Āyah: 33
[2]: Fatḥ al-Qadīr, Dār al-Kutub al-cIlmiyyah, 2:370
