Travellers
(16) For a traveller to be allowed to break his fast, certain conditions must be met. His journey should be lengthy, or else be known as traveling (although there is a well-known difference of opinion among the scholars on this matter), and should go beyond the city and its suburbs.

(The majority of scholars say that he should not break his fast before he passes the city limits. They say that a journey has not really begun until a person passes the city limits, and a person who is still in the city is "settled" and "present".

Allah says (interpretation of the meaning): "So whoever of you sights (the crescent on the first night of) the month (of Ramadaan, i.e., is present at his home), he must observes sawm (fasts) that month." [al-Baqarah 2:185].

He is not counted as a traveller until he has left the city; if he is still within the city, he is regarded as one who is settled, so he is not permitted to shorten his prayers). His journey should also not be a journey for sinful purposes (according to the majority)

(17) The traveler is allowed to break his fast, according to the consensus of the ummah, whether he is able to continue fasting or not, and whether is it difficult for him to fast or not. Even if his journey is easy and he has someone to serve him, he is still permitted to break his fast and shorten his prayers. (Majmoo' al-Fataawaa, 25/210).

(18) Whoever is determined to travel in Ramadaan should not have the intention of breaking his fast until he is actually traveling, because something may happen to prevent him from setting out on his journey. (Tafseer al-Qurtubi, 2/278).

The traveler should not break his fast until he has passed beyond the inhabited houses of his town; once he has passed the city limits, he may break his fast. Similarly, if he is flying, once the plane has taken off and has gone beyond the city limits, he may break his fast. If the airport is outside his city, he can break his fast there, but if the airport is within his city or attached to it, he should not break his fast in the airport because he is still inside his own city.

(19) If the sun sets and he breaks his fast on the ground, then the plane takes off and he sees the sun, he does not have to stop eating, because he has already completed his day's fasting, and there is no way to repeat an act of worship that is finished. If the plane takes off before sunset and he wants to complete that day's fasting during the journey, he should not break his fast until the sun has set from wherever he is in the air. The pilot is not permitted to bring the plane down to an altitude from which the sun cannot be seen just for the purposes of breaking the fast, because this would just be a kind of trickery, but if he brings the plane down lower for a genuine reason, and the disk of the sun disappears as a result, then he may break his fast.. (From the fataawa of Shaykh Ibn Baaz, issued verbally).


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I would like to add that the most honest sheyoukh said that the distance of travelling should be about 80 km or more, so one should not break his fast for 70 km travel, for example.

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