How Should I Make Fasts After Failing to Fast Out of Ignorance? How Should I Clean Myself in the Rest Room to Not Break My Fast?
Answered by Ustadh Sufyan Qufi
Question
1. Do I do qaza fasts missed ignorantly due to unawareness that I had to start as soon as puberty? I thought I could just start when I felt ready. Do I have to make these up? In regards to making it up. Can they technically be done piecemeal or 30 consecutive?
2. Also, over the years, I use wet tissue and stick it into the bum hole to remove poo flakes. Does it break the fast? After I intentionally did it partially or on the surface. I read fast only breaks if it goes into the rectum. I don’t think I put the tissue or finger that far in merely touching the hole area. Is this fine?
Answer
In the name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful,
I pray this finds you in the best of states.
1. You will have to make up those fasts as soon as possible. [Shurunbulali, Nur al-Idah]
If you have not been able to finish making up all your missed fasts before next Ramadan, you will have to perform the current fasts of Ramadan and delay your make up fasts after Ramadan. [Ibid]
Please remember that you don’t have to make up all your fasts consecutively. [Ibid]
Don’t make things too hard on yourself!
Allah, Most High, says: “Allah does not like to impose a difficulty on you.” [Quran, 5:6]
Expiation (Kaffara)
No expiation (fasting two months consecutively in addition to making up your fasts) is needed in your case. As mentioned in a previous answer at SeekersGuidance:
“Expiation (Kaffara) only becomes necessary upon an individual if a fast was broken deliberately after actually starting it by eating, drinking, or having sexual intercourse. As such, if a fast of Ramadan was not kept altogether, then although one will be sinful for not fasting, a Kaffara will not be necessary; rather, one will be obliged to make up for the missed fast (qada).”
Please see: Is Expiation (kaffara) Necessary For Not Fasting in Ramadan?
Ignorance as an Excuse
As mentioned many times by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani ( may Allah protect him):
Ignorance is not acceptable as an excuse for not knowing the rulings of the Shari’a when knowledge is available and one has the possibility of learning. [Ibn Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar]
This point is completely realized in the contemporary world of the internet, where knowledge is accessible to all.
2. Your fasts have not been invalidated by what you did because no water has entered your body. [Shurunbulali, Maraqi al-Falah]
The fast would be invalidated only if the water went up into the backside a distance of a suppository, which classically was about 3cm or so. So your fasts are fine. [Shurunbulali, Ascent to Felicity]
And Allah knows best.
Wassalam
[Ustadh] Sufyan Qufi
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Ustadh Sufyan Qufi is an advanced seeker of knowledge, originally from Algeria, who grew up in France. He began searching far and wide for answers to the fundamental questions of life and was disappointed at the answers he found. Then he connected with various traditional teachers and gradually connected with SeekersGuidance. He embarked on his journey of learning through the various teachers at SeekersGuidance, including his mentor Shaykh Faraz Rabbani. He studied numerous texts in Islamic Law, Theology, Hadith, and other areas with Shaykh Faraz Rabbani and other teachers, including Shaykh Abdurrahman al-Sha‘ar, Shaykh Ali Hani, and others. He is an active instructor at SeekersGuidance and answers questions through the SeekersGuidance Answers Service.
