Question:

Dear Shaykh,
In some countries the days are very long, sometimes longer than 20 hours [between fajr and maghrib]. What is the ruling on fasting during these days? What is one to do if such a fast affects one’s ability to work, and is burdensome or unbearable?

Answer:

If the day is very long but still has a clear daytime and a clear night [i.e., true night, with the disappearance of shafaq, or twilight glow, from the horizon], then there is no sharia text indicating the permissibility of breaking fast; rather, the legally capable and obliged person must remain fasting.

However, if true burden afflicts him, it is permissible to break the fast and make up his fast on another day, similar to agreed upon difficulties such as travel and illness.

This is what the Hanafis said in the case of extreme hunger and thirst, and likewise what the later Malikis held with regard to those engaged in difficult work which is indispensable [to their livelihood and/or that of others] and which they must definitely attend to. Examples such as shepherds or those those who dig wells are commonly given in the books of fiqh.

The indication of fasting, legally speaking, is the night and the day, so they must be considered.

On the whole, the issue of fasting during a long day is an individual matter and not a matter of society because it is linked to hardship [on a personal basis]. Thus whomever deems it possible for himself to fast then he must fast; whereas he who suffers from hardship begins the day fasting and only breaks his fast if and when the hardship becomes moderate to severe according to his assessment and ability (such as the inability of a worker to complete his work, for example). He is then liable to make up any fasts which he has broken (‘alayhi al-qada’).

Then, at that time, it is permissible for them to break the fast based on this hardship, and not on the basis of the length of the day.

Translated by Yusuf Lenfest