Q1: What is the ruling on the one who abandons fasting the month of Ramadan while rejecting its Sharīʿah obligation?
A1: Whoever abandons fasting in Ramadan while rejecting its Sharīʿah obligation becomes an unbeliever—unless he is a new convert to Islam, or because one has grown up far away from where Muslims reside, so the obligation of fasting in Ramadan is unknown to them, so they are excused due to their ignorance, so these are not labelled as unbelievers. As for other than them, then they are considered to be unbelievers by the ijmāʿ of the scholars.
Q2: What is the ruling on the one who abandons fasting the month of Ramadan deliberately out of laziness [or negligence]?
A2: Whoever misses even one day of fasting in the month of Ramadan deliberately out of laziness or negligence has committed a major sin (though he is still a Muslim). Upon him is to repent to Allāh, and make up what he has missed (qadāʾ). The four well-known Madhhabs of Islamic Fiqh have stated this: al-Hanafiyyah, al-Mālikiyyah, ash-Shāfiʿiyyah and the Hanābilah. This was also the view of Ibn Bāz, and is the view of Al-Fawzān.
However, Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn ʿUthaimeen held the view that the one who abandoned fasting deliberately without excuse (out of laziness), even a single day, has committed a major sin, and there is no qadāʾ (making up) for him. Rather, upon him is tawbah and optional fasts, as there is no proof that an act of obligatory worship (that is to be performed at a specific time) can be made up if missed deliberately without a legitimate reason.
If the fasts are missed for legitimate reasons mentioned in the Qur’an and Sunnah, then one is to make qadāʾ, and they are not sinful: the traveller, the menstruating woman, women in post-natal bleeding, and the sick person.
Abu Khadeejah.
