Answer

Wa `alaykum as-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

Dear questioner, we would like to thank you for the great confidence you place in us, and we implore Allah Almighty to help us serve His cause and render our work for His Sake.

He who forces another person to nullify his fasting incurs a grave sin. Islam does not give a man the right to make his wife break her fast before its due time during Ramadan, although this may be the case with fasting in times other than Ramadan.

If the man exceeds his limits and wants to have sexual intercourse with his wife during the day of Ramadan, she should not obey him; if he forces her to do so, she is not sinful, and thus is not required to expiate for such a deed. However, she is to make up for that day later, as her fasting has been nullified by sexual intercourse. It is the husband who is sinful in that case and is required to repent and expiate for the sin he has committed.

In his response to your question, Dr. Husam al-Din ibn Musa `Afana, a professor of Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence at Al-Quds University, Palestine, states,

It is unanimously agreed upon that sexual intercourse is one of the causes that nullify fasting. Allah Almighty says, “It is made lawful for you to go unto your wives on the night of the fast. They are raiment for you and you are raiment for them. Allah is aware that you were deceiving yourselves in this respect and He has turned in mercy toward you and relieved you. So hold intercourse with them and seek that which Allah has ordained for you, and eat and drink until the white thread becomes distinct to you from the black thread of the dawn. Then strictly observe the fast till nightfall and touch them not, but be at your devotions in the mosques. These are the limits imposed by Allah, so approach them not. Thus Allah expounds His revelations to mankind that they may ward off (evil).” (Al-Baqarah 2:187)

Allah Most High says in a hadith qudsi, “All the deeds of Adam’s sons (people) are for them, except fasting which is for Me, and I will give the reward for it. He (the fasting person) has left his food, drink and desires for My sake.” (It is an authentic hadith reported by Ibn Khuzaymah)

It is forbidden for a Muslim to nullify his fast or another’s fast without justification; he who does this intentionally incurs a grave sin.

There is a scholarly difference as to the legal rulings concerning forcing a person to break his fast before its due time. Let’s narrow down this point to forcing one’s wife to nullify her fast by performing sexual intercourse.

The majority of jurists from the Hanafi and Maliki schools are of the opinion that if a man has forced his wife to make love to him during the day-time of a day in Ramadan, [she is not sinful, yet] she is to make up for that day later, for her fasting has been nullified by sexual intercourse. The husband is to make up for that day later and he is also to expiate such a deed. [The expiation consists of freeing a sound Muslim slave; if this is not possible, then the expiation is fasting the days of two consecutive months. If this is not possible, then the expiation is feeding sixty unfortunates]. This view is adopted also by a group of the Shafi`i school and a group of the Hanbali scholars.

Other groups of the Shafi`i and Hanbali scholars believe that the fast of the wife in that case remains valid, for she has broken her fast under coercion. They quote as evidence of their view the hadith in which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Allah Almighty will not call my nation to account for what they have done by (unintentional) mistake, or out of forgetfulness or under coercion.” (Ibn Majah and Al-Hakim)

I am most inclined to adopting the opinion that the wife forced to nullify her fast during the Day of Ramadan by sexual intercourse is to make up for that day later. This is because I believe that a wife in that case is not one hundred percent forced; her response to making love often implies some kind of agreement and sexual desire too. Besides, the concept of coercion is controversial to many people.

Allah Almighty knows best.