Ruling on breaking fast because of military training

15-5-2017 | IslamWeb

Question:

I am a military aviation student. One day, during last Ramadan, I was supposed to undertake pilot training in the morning. Therefore, I did not fast that day. What happened was that the weather changed and caused the training sortie to be cancelled, and I did not take my flight. What is the ruling? Shall I offer an expiation? I would like to inform you that I already made up the day before the current Ramadan came. Am I permitted to eat and satisfy my hunger after the sortie, or shall I continue abstaining from food and drink the rest of the day?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.

We have mentioned before that military training is not an excuse for breaking one’s fast. However, if a person is forced to attend such training and the training causes him to face such hardship that he becomes unable to continue fasting, then he may break his fast and make up for the day later. The person is not allowed to break his fast before he certainly encounters hardship that exceeds what he normally faces when fasting. If a person’s training ends during the daytime, the person must abstain from food and drink the rest of the day out of respect for the month.

That being said, the questioner should not have broken his fast before hardship certainly overtook him. Therefore, the questioner needs to turn to Allah in repentance, and he is only required to make up for the day in which he broke his fast.

Allah knows best.