What breaks the fast and what doesn't?

What requires both qada and kaffarah

In a Ramadan fast, when the intention was made the night before, if done deliberately and without a valid excuse:

• Sexual intercourse — qada and kaffarah are required of both partners.
• Deliberately eating or drinking something that is food or is normally eaten or drunk.

Repentance is also required along with the kaffarah. According to the Shafi'is, only qada is required for eating and drinking; kaffarah is specific to sexual intercourse.

What requires qada only

• Eating or drinking for a legitimate reason such as illness or travel.
• Swallowing something unintentionally while aware that you are fasting (e.g. water going down your throat during wudu, or swallowing water while swimming).
• Swallowing something that is not food, such as a stone, paper or cotton, or something not normally eaten that way, such as raw rice.
• Swallowing a chickpea-sized morsel left between the teeth.
• Eating after dawn has broken, thinking imsak had not yet begun, or breaking the fast early, thinking the sun had set.
• Deliberately vomiting a mouthful.
• Carrying on eating after eating by mistake, thinking "my fast is broken anyway".
• Cigarettes, hookah (shisha) and medicine taken by mouth.
• Drips, nutritional or vitamin injections, blood transfusions into the body, and oral vaccines.

What does not break the fast

• Eating or drinking by mistake — when you remember, you remove what is in your mouth, rinse your mouth and carry on fasting.
• Injections and vaccines that do not provide nourishment or pleasure (it is advised to leave them until after iftar if possible).
• Eye drops, nasal drops, and ear drops if the eardrum is intact.
• Asthma inhalers, medicine placed under the tongue, ointments and medicated patches.
• Giving blood, having blood taken for a test.
• Brushing your teeth and rinsing your mouth — as long as nothing goes down your throat. If toothpaste goes down, the fast is broken; it is advised not to use toothpaste while fasting.
• Dental treatment and anaesthetic injections — as long as no water, blood or medicine goes down your throat.
• Involuntary vomiting, whatever the amount.
• Angiography, biopsy and local anaesthesia; endoscopy in which no water or food is given.

The points on medical procedures are based on the 2005 decision of Diyanet's High Council of Religious Affairs, "Methods of examination and treatment that do and do not break the fast".

What is kaffarah and how is it fulfilled?

Kaffarah is fasting for 60 consecutive days. Someone who is unable to do so feeds 60 poor people for one day, or one poor person for 60 days. According to the Hanafis, if the kaffarah fast is interrupted, it is started again from the beginning (except for a woman's menstruation). A single kaffarah is enough for fasts broken in more than one Ramadan, but each broken day must also be made up separately.

Related verses

• Al-Baqarah 2:183 — O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting…
• Al-Baqarah 2:184 — …then an equal number of other days [are to be made up].
• Al-Baqarah 2:187 — Then complete the fast until the night [i.e., sunset].

Quotations are from the Saheeh International translation; links open the full verse on Quran.com.

Frequently asked

I ate by mistake. Is my fast broken?

No. As soon as you remember, you remove what is in your mouth and carry on fasting. But if you carry on eating, thinking "it's broken anyway", qada is required.

Do injections and vaccines break the fast?

Injections and vaccines that do not provide nourishment or pleasure do not break it. Drips, vitamin and nutritional injections and blood transfusions do.

Do eye drops and asthma inhalers break the fast?

According to Diyanet, they do not.

I owe years of fasts. How do I make them up?

First work out the number of days not fasted; if you did not fast at all, count 30 days for each year as a precaution. They are made up on any days except the days of Eid; the intention can be made as "to make up the first fast I owe".

Sources

1. Diyanet High Council of Religious Affairs — Situations that break the fast and require both qada and kaffarah (in Turkish)
2. Diyanet High Council of Religious Affairs — Situations that break the fast and require qada only (in Turkish)
3. Diyanet High Council of Religious Affairs decision — Methods of examination and treatment that do and do not break the fast (in Turkish)
4. Diyanet High Council of Religious Affairs — What is the ruling on deliberately breaking the fast? (in Turkish)
5. Diyanet High Council of Religious Affairs — Does eating or drinking by mistake break the fast? (in Turkish)
6. Diyanet High Council of Religious Affairs — Do vaccines or injections break the fast? (in Turkish)
7. Diyanet High Council of Religious Affairs — Does brushing your teeth break the fast? (in Turkish)
8. Diyanet High Council of Religious Affairs — How should someone with many fasts to make up fast them? (in Turkish)
9. TDV Encyclopedia of Islam — Fasting (Oruç) (in Turkish)

This page is compiled from the rulings of Türkiye's Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) and the sources listed. Rulings follow the Hanafi school; where other schools differ, this is noted. For your personal situation, please ask a scholar at your local mosque. Last updated: 5 October 2026.

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