Is the Ramadan fast valid on a journey?

The jurists agree that a traveller is allowed to break the fast in Ramadan, and differ on whether his fasting is valid and which is better; Ibn Hazm sets out the question in the Book of Fasting of al-Muhalla and reaches a view that departs from the three imams: breaking the fast is obligatory for the traveller, and a Ramadan fast kept on a journey does not count. ^{1 2}

Ibn Hazm lays down that whoever travels in Ramadan, on a journey of obedience, of disobedience or neither, must break the fast once he has passed or reached a mile; his fast is void from then, not before, and he makes it up on other days, though he may fast that day voluntarily or for an obligation, a make-up day or a vow. ¹ He reports that Malik and al-Shafi'i did not allow breaking the fast on a journey of disobedience, that treating all journeys alike is the view of Abu Hanifa and Dawud, and he argues that the verse covers every journey. ¹ For the distance he refers to his full treatment in the Book of Prayer and repeats part of it: Abu Hanifa's limit of three days' travel, al-Shafi'i's of forty-six miles, the differing reports from Malik, then varied reports from Ibn 'Umar, Ibn 'Abbas, 'Umar, Anas, Ibn Mas'ud and Sa'id ibn al-Musayyab, and the report of Abu Basra al-Ghifari, who broke his fast on a boat leaving Fustat while the houses were still in sight and asked, "Do you turn away from the Sunna of God's Messenger?" ^{3 4 5}

Ibn Hazm says people differed: one group held that whoever travels after Ramadan has begun must fast all of it; another that he may choose; another that his fast does not count and he must break it; and those who allow the choice split three ways: fasting is better, breaking is better, or the two are equal. ²

The first view he relates from 'Ali ibn Abi Talib through 'Abida al-Salmani: one whom Ramadan reaches at home and who then travels must fast, by al-Baqara 185 on whoever witnesses the month; the same from 'Abida and Ibn 'Abbas; from 'A'isha that she forbade travel in Ramadan; and similar views from Khaythama, Abu Mijlaz, Ibrahim al-Nakha'i and 'Urwa. ^{2 6} The view of choice with fasting preferred is that of Abu Hanifa, Malik and al-Shafi'i, who argued from al-Baqara 184, which says fasting is better, from Salama ibn al-Muhabbaq's report "whoever has a mount that brings him to sufficiency, let him fast Ramadan wherever it reaches him", and from the reports of Abu Sa'id, Abu al-Darda' and Jabir that the Prophet ﷺ ordered his Companions to break the fast on a journey while he was fasting; they cited 'A'isha fasting and praying in full on journeys, and similar practice from Abu Musa, Anas, 'Uthman ibn Abi al-'As, Ibn 'Abbas, al-Miswar ibn Makhrama (may God be pleased with him), 'Ali, 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz, Tawus and al-Aswad ibn Yazid. ^{6 7 8} Those who held the two equal argued from the report of Hamza ibn 'Amr al-Aslami, who said he felt strong enough to fast on journeys and was told, "Whichever you wish, Hamza", which those who preferred breaking also cited. ⁸

Ibn Hazm argues from al-Baqara 185, on whoever witnesses the month and on the sick and the traveller, which he calls a verse unabrogated and unrestricted by consensus: God imposed the fast of the month only on whoever witnesses it, and imposed on the sick and the traveller only other days outside Ramadan; reading it as "if they break the fast" is, he says, a claim without proof. ⁹ He gives Jabir ibn 'Abd Allah's report that the Prophet set out for Mecca in Ramadan in the year of the Conquest and fasted until he reached Kura' al-Ghamim, and the people fasted; then he called for a cup of water and drank, and when told that some people had kept fasting he said, "Those are the disobedient, those are the disobedient." If his fast was for Ramadan, Ibn Hazm says, he abrogated it with these words, so that breaking became obligatory and fasting disobedience; if it was voluntary, the ban on fasting Ramadan on a journey is all the clearer. ¹⁰ He gives the hadith "it is not piety to fast on a journey" through chains in al-Bukhari, Muslim and others. ^{10 11}

Ibn Hazm lists those who held his view "so that they cannot claim that we oppose consensus": 'Umar ibn al-Khattab ordered a man who had fasted on a journey to repeat it; 'A'isha forbade Abu Salama ibn 'Abd al-Rahman to fast Ramadan on a journey; Abu Hurayra said it is not piety to fast on a journey and ordered his son al-Muharrar to repeat what he had fasted on a journey. ^{12 13 14} He relates from Ibn 'Abbas that breaking the fast on a journey in Ramadan is a firm command, and that asked about one who fasted on a journey he said it does not count; from Ibn 'Umar, "it is a charity God has given you; if you gave a charity and it was handed back to you, would you not be angry?", and that he told a fasting woman travelling with him not to accompany them. ^{13 14} He relates from 'Abd al-Rahman ibn 'Awf, "one who fasts on a journey is like one who breaks the fast at home", judging its chain sound, and then from Sa'id ibn al-Musayyab, 'Ata' (for the obligatory fast, not the voluntary), 'Urwa, al-Sha'bi, 'Ali ibn al-Husayn and his son Muhammad, al-Qasim ibn Muhammad and Yunus ibn 'Ubayd. ^{14 15} He cites al-Zuhri that breaking the fast was the later of the Prophet's two practices, and a report traced to the Prophet: "one who fasts Ramadan on a journey is like one who breaks it at home." ¹⁵

The schools' views are given only as Ibn Hazm reports them; they have not yet been added from the schools' own books, nor the Hanbali view, nor Ibn Hazm's detailed reply to the report of Hamza al-Aslami.