Chapter on One Incapable of Fasting

Muhammad ibn Yaqub, from Muhammad ibn Yahya, from Ahmad ibn Muhammad, from Ibn Mahbub, from Ibn Sinan, who said: I (narrator) asked Abu Abdillah عليه السلام, peace be upon him, about ‘a man who travels in the month of Ramadan and has with him a slave-girl belonging to him, whether he may have intercourse with her during the day.’ Imam عليه السلام said: “Glory be to Allah سبحانه وتعالى! Does this one not know the sanctity of the month of Ramadan? Indeed, he has a long expanse in the night.” I (narrator) asked: “Does he not have the right to eat, drink, and shorten the prayer?” Imam عليه السلام said: “Indeed Allah سبحانه وتعالى, Mighty and Majestic, has granted the traveler a concession in breaking the fast and shortening the prayer, as a mercy and an easing because of the place of fatigue, hardship, and the roughness of travel, but Allah سبحانه وتعالى has not granted him a concession in having intercourse with women during travel by day in the month of Ramadan. And Allah سبحانه وتعالى has made obligatory upon him the making up of the fast, but Allah سبحانه وتعالى has not made obligatory upon him the completing of the prayer when he returns from his travel.” Then Imam عليه السلام said: “And the Sunnah is not measured by analogy, and when I travel in the month of Ramadan, I do not eat except (minimal) sustenance, and I do not drink (excessively) to full quenching.”