Recordings › Q: Does Masturbation Invalidate the Fast? Mufti Abu Layth · 17 May 2017 › Segment 1 of 1
Does masturbation break my fast?
hadeeth ahadith ahaadeeth hadis hadees ahaadith hanafite hanafiyyah fatwah fatawa fatwaa fataawa legal opinion muftis sunna sunnat sunan prophetic practice koran quraan al-quran ayah aya ayat ayaat aayah aayat ulama ulema ulamaaDoes masturbation invalidate the fast? The majority and minority views
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This segment0:05 to 5:24 · 5 min 19 sA view quoted in order to be discussed, not a position held
The answer in brief
machinesummary, machine-writtenScholars differ: the majority hold that masturbation with ejaculation breaks the fast, by analogy with intercourse, while a minority including Ibn Hazm and some Hanafis hold that it does not, since no text says so. Mufti Abu Layth presents both views without committing to one.
In more detail
An audience member asks whether masturbation invalidates the fast. Mufti Abu Layth first makes the question precise: speaking from a male perspective, what is meant is whether ejaculation, rather than mere touching, breaks the fast, though he agrees to take it in its complete sense. He says there is a difference of opinion. The main transmitted understanding is that it does invalidate the fast; since no verse or hadith speaks of masturbation specifically, those scholars reason from sexual interaction, placing it with intercourse, which everyone agrees breaks the fast, rather than with a wet dream, which everyone agrees does not, because the act is conscious, wilful and done for desire, so that it incurs at least qada [?] and at most kaffarah [?] as well. A minority places it with the wet dream, arguing that without a clear text of the Quran or Sunnah one cannot say it invalidates the fast; he recalls Ibn Hazm [?] among them, several Hanafis holding a known but non-fatwa position within the Hanafi school, and he thinks al-Shawkani [?] and al-Albani [?] argued the same, whether or not they approved of the act. He closes by saying the matter is not absolutely clear-cut, but the majority hold that it does invalidate the fast.
Question as read aloud · questioner not identifiedDoes masturbation invalidate the fast?
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Position stated
This segment presents a view in order to discuss or respond to it. It is recorded as quoted, never as held, and no position is attributed from it.
Kind: a view quoted in order to be discussed, not a position heldTranscript
machine0:05 to 5:24 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
This segment states a view in order to discuss it. It is recorded as a quoted view, not as a position held.
[Music] [Music] [Laughter] This is a setup question.
Now, this is does uh masturbation invalidate the fast? Okay, let me just see who's recognize your faces. Who's who seems too keen on this question so I can right Okay. Now, well, I think there's there's more detail to this question
right now. [Laughter] I was going to say this is more hands-on approach to this question. The thing is that this question really I think what you have to look at is uh first of all we got to be precise. It's more the let's say we're speaking from a male perspective. It's more the ejaculation that's being just I mean I'm taking into consideration that's what the person intends when they say does masturbation they mean does ejaculation invalidate the fast as opposed to just
touching yourself in that sense right look my eyes getting all embarrassed I know where the question came from now so the thing is well let's take it to mean that in its complete sense. Now does it invalidate the fast? I think uh the let's there is a difference of opinion.
The main understanding amongst most people that's transmitted is that it does invalidate the fast. Okay. uh and they draw that conclusion because there is no there is no hadith or any text in the Quran or Sunnah or anything to do with uh masturbation specifically. So they draw that conclusion from sexual interaction.
So they say well because having everybody agrees that having sexual intercourse will invalidate the fast and everybody agrees that let's say if a person had a wet dream that does not invalidate the fast. So masturbation's kind of in the middle. So now where would you put it? More with the wet dream or more with sexual intercourse?
So most people put it on this end and they would say well it does because of the consciousness and the decision to do it and the because it's willful and it's uh something being done for desire and so on. So most do feel that it does invalidate the fast and therefore will incur uh at the very least it will incur a and at the most it will incur a kaf with it as well.
That's many do have that position. Then there is a minority understanding that will place this with more like a wet dream. So they say because there's no clear verse of the Quran or hadith from the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam saying that masturbation invalidates the fast therefore we cannot accept that it does.
Okay? because they're saying that we need a clear text from the Quran or Sunnah and we don't have that and we have to now put this with either the the wet dream or either put it with the sexual uh intercourse and they say well we see this more like a wet dream. So according to them and amongst them is people if I recall correctly like Hazam.
It is also the understanding of uh of several of although not the majority position within the hannfi ma but several hanafies uh did hold that position especially people from uh the what they used to call the and and several it's it's a known position within the m but it's not the not the position that they give the fatwa by but it is within the hanfi mhab and I think with that other like Imm Shokani has also argued in favor of that and I think Almani as well and a few
other argued along that course of along that line saying that it doesn't whether they agreed with the act or not but they said well it doesn't invalidate the fast. So that's the difference of opinion really on this matter. It's not once again like many things it's not absolutely clearcut but the majority do seem to go with the fact that it will invalidate. Okay.
Okay.
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Cite this segment
Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2017-05-17d-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/zlxm19mte2a/s/1/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2017, May 17). Does masturbation break my fast? [Video, segment 2017-05-17d-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/zlxm19mte2a/s/1/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2017. "Does masturbation break my fast?" Video, segment 2017-05-17d-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded May 17, 2017. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/zlxm19mte2a/s/1/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2017-05-17d-S01, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{Does masturbation break my fast?}}, year = {2017}, month = {5}, date = {2017-05-17}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/zlxm19mte2a/s/1/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/zlxm19mte2a/s/1/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2017-05-17d-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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