['Aalim Network QR] Living on Campus and Fasting

[Mustafa Rawji <mrawji@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>]

________________________________________________________________________
|                          w           w     w                          |\
|                           ||          ||   | ||                       |\
|                    o_,_7 _||  . _o_7 _|| 4_|_||  o_w_,                |\
|                   ( :   /    (_)    /           (   .                 |\
|                                                                       |\
|           ||  ||         |  ||   |T              |     | ||    |      |\
|   . _, _8 |_D_|| . _,_,_,_D_|| 4_|| q ]_o_7_o   _|_c 4_|_||   _|,_p q |\
|  (_): /         (_): . :            /        (_S           (_S      / |\
|                                                                       |\
|       In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the All-Merciful       |\
|  Greeting of Allah be upon Muhammad and the pure members of his House |\
|_______________________________________________________________________|\

Salaamun alaykum,

        The reply to the following question was kindly provided by Mulla
Bashir. We are grateful to him for his assistance during this Holy Month of
Ramadhan.

Wasalaam,

Mustafa Rawji
Moderator, 'Aalim Network

------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUESTION:

a)For students who live on campus and wish to visit their parents how can
they visit them without breaking their fasts?


b)For those students who travel everyday for school more than 15 miles
can they still fast? 

c)How many days does someone have to live somewhere in a place other than
their house and still be able to keep all their fasts?

ANSWER:

I understand that many of our students live on campus and visit home
from time to time, and during holidays they may have some difficulty in
understanding the rules of fasting when they travel from home to campus or
vice versa. The following might prove of some help: 

 1. Basically the rules relating to qasr prayers apply in relation to
fasting. Generally speaking when qasr prayers are required to be
performed, the person is a traveller. 
 
 2. If a student visits home or is returning to the campus then-
 
(a) If he leaves home or campus before Zuhr time, the moment he reaches 
hadde tarakhkhus (the boundary of the city or town in question) he becomes
a traveller and his fast becomes invalid.
    If however he arrives at his destination prior to Zuhr, AND he has not
eaten or done anything to break his fast, he may continue the fast and it
will count as a valid fast. In other words, once he reaches hadde
tarakhkhus he is at liberty to break his fast, in which case the lapsed
fast will attract qadha only. 
 
(b) If he leaves after Zuhr then he must continue the fast.

3. There is another aspect which is very important. For a student on the
campus, is the campus to be regarded as his/her home ? If he is going to
live on the campus for ten days or more than the rule with regard the ten
day stay applies and he must fast. If he is going to be there for lesser
duration (as when he visits his home town every week-end or so), his
situation will depend upon whose muqallid he is.

(a) If he or she is in the taqlid of the late Ayatullah Khui (A.R.), there
is no problem.  Ayatullah has stated categorically that for a student
living on the campus attached to an institution of learning or even taking
up a residence in a private home or rented premises in that city so as to
be close to the college or school, that is to be regarded as his "watan" 
for the duration of his stay there. He will then have two watans, the
family home and his the place where he has his residence to facilitate his
pursuit of learning. (see masalla 1340 of the Articles of Islamic Acts of
Ayatullah Khui.) 

(b) For those who are muqallids of Ayatullah Seestani, although he has not
specifically dealt with the issue one can assume from his various rulings
that his position is the same as that of Ayatullah Khui. In fact some
scholars whom I have consulted on this issue have assured me that
Ayatullah Seestani has confirmed the opinion of Ayatullah Khui (The
relevant masaail are 1315 and the subsequent articles in the English
translation of his Taudhhul Masaail) 

(c) For those who are still in the taqlid of Marhum Ayatullah Khumaini
(A.R.), I have had some difficulty. While most of his rulings on residence
and watan are almost the same as those Ayatullah Khui one finds a
statement in Article 1328 of his Tauhidhul Masaail (Urdu version)  that a
temporary residence is not regarded as a watan. There has to be an
intention to reside permanently or at a place and for duration that by the
local custom (URF) it would be regarded as his watan. The learned scholars
whom I consulted were of the opinion that for a muqallid of Ayatullah
Khumaini it would be difficult to consider the campus as a home

[I am most grateful to al-Hajj Mulla Asghar, al-Hajj Mulla Muhsin Jaffer,
Sayyid Milani and our dear friend Dr. Liyakat Takim for their guidance to
me on the above issue]

3. With regard to the students who have to commute to their schools,
colleges or other institution of learning on regular basis, there is a
consensus of agreement amongst the fuqaha that there is no problem with
regard to fasting even while travelling to or from their homes. They would
come under the class of the people who are regular and frequent travellers.

4. If a person travels to a destination the return journey from which
exceeds 28 kilometers then, unless he is a frequent and regular traveller to
that place he can not fast unless he intends and makes a niyyah of staying
at that destination for ten full days (from sunrise to the sunrise of the
following day counts as a full day). This is the ten day stay rule to which
I have referred above.  

I trust the above helps. If there are any other follow up questions please
refer to the Alim Network. 
 

With salaams and du'aas from a humble servant of Ahlul Bayt and their
followers, and with a request to be remembered by you in your prayers,

Bashir Rahim