“He said: “Allah only accepts from the righteous.” (Qur’an 5:27)
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To be clear what we are saying is that one who commits a major sin nullifies their fast for the day that they commit the sin on. We are not saying that it invalides the entire fast of Ramadan.
Based upon the Qur’an and Sunnah: acts of worship are not merely valid or invalid based on external conditions (shurūṭ). They are real (accepted) or unreal (rejected) based on whether they achieve their intended effect.
- Ṣalāh without khushū‘ and without abandoning ḥarām is not ṣalāh. It is mere movement.
- Ṣawm without abandoning ḥarām is not ṣawm. It is mere hunger.
- Zakāh given from ḥarām wealth is not zakāh. It is mere transfer of property.
- Ḥajj without taqwā is not ḥajj. It is mere travel.
“He said: “Allah only accepts from the righteous.” (Qur’an 5:27)
This serves as a sufficient proof that Allah Almighty does not accept any act of worship from a disobedient person; this is the essential point, and there are numerous hadith that support this as well.
Similarily, if you turn to the Qur’an, there are many verses indicating that the deeds of a disobedient person are cast back upon him; the hadith also attest to this.
The Mixture of Righteous and Evil Deeds
Obedience and disobedience cannot occupy the same place in the heart of the diligent worshipper.
“And (there are) others who have acknowledged their sins, they have mixed a deed that was righteous with another that was evil. Perhaps Allâh will turn unto them in forgiveness. Surely, Allâh is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” (Qur’an 9:102)
Understanding the above evidence.
Allah (swt) says that the mixing of a righteous deed with another deed that was evil is acknowledged as a sin. It is like mixing pure water with toxin. The combination of the two is still toxic. The mixture is defined by the toxin, not the water. Allah (swt) doesn’t accept this mixture.
The Meaning of “La‘allakum Tattaqūna”
“O you who believe, fasting is prescribed upon you as it was prescribed upon those who were before you, so that you may become righteous.” (Qur’an 2:183)
la’allakum tattaqūna From the perspective of Arabic grammar la’alla is to achieve the reason for something. It is not to achieve the hope. For example: In English we might say, ‘Maybe I come to you’.
The Arabic here is not about aiming for a ‘maybe’.
The grammatical analysis of Qur’an 2:183 is correct from the Ibadi perspective. The particle لَعَلَّ (la‘alla) here expresses purpose and intended outcome, not mere possibility or hope. The verse establishes taqwa as the raison d’être of fasting—the goal to be achieved. Fasting that does not produce taqwa has failed its purpose.
The Arabic here is talking about the reason and what is to be achieved! So the reason for fasting is to achieve taqwa!
In reality this is for all our ibadat. All our worship is to achieve this aim.
This is indicated by the verse:
“O mankind! worship your Lord, the One Who created you and those from before you, so that you may become righteous.” (Qur’an 2:21)
Two Possible Understandings of the Failure of Fasting
Understanding 1: The fast is valid but fruitless.
The person fasted correctly. They abstained from food, drink, and marital relations during the prescribed hours. However, the fast did not produce taqwa because they did not couple it with obedience in other matters. The fast “failed its purpose” but was still technically performed.
Understanding 2: The fast was never truly performed.
The Ibadi position is stronger and more consistent. If the person did not achieve taqwa, it is not that they fasted and the fast was deficient—rather, they did not truly fast at all. What they did was merely imsāk (abstention), not siyām (fasting). The outward form was present, but the reality was absent.
Why Understanding 2 is More Consistent
If لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ expresses the purpose and intended outcome of fasting, that it is not merely a hoped-for side effect; then the relationship between fasting and taqwa is not accidental but essential. A thing that does not achieve its essential purpose is not truly that thing at all!
This aligns with the following hadith:
It was narrated from Abu Hurairah that the Messenger of Allah (saw) said:
“There are people who fast and get nothing from their fast except hunger, and there are those who pray and get nothing from their prayer but a sleepless night.”
Source: (https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah:1690)
The Blessed Prophet (saw) does not say they did not fast. He says they get nothing from their fast—meaning what they did was not fasting in the true sense. It was hunger without siyām.
And the following hadith:
Narrated Abu Huraira:
The Prophet (saw) said, “Whoever does not give up false statements (i.e. telling lies), and evil deeds, and speaking bad words to others, Allah is not in need of his (fasting) leaving his food and drink.”
Source: (https://sunnah.com/bukhari:6057)
Here the blessed Prophet (saw) is telling us by way of inspiration that Allah (swt) is saying:
I do not accept this as fasting at all. The person left food and drink, but that leaving was not siyām; because siyām by definition includes the abandonment of prohibitions.
The narration from Ibn Abbas (ra) makes this explicit:
أَبُو عُبَيْدَةَ ، عَنْ جَابِرُ بْنُ زَيْدٍ ، عَنِ ابْنِ عَبَّاسٍ ، عَنِ النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ قَالَ : ” لا إِيمَانَ لِمَنْ لا صَلاةَ لَهُ ، وَلا صَلاةَ لِمَنْ لا وُضُوءَ لَهُ ، وَلا صَوْمَ إِلا بِالْكَفِّ عَنْ مَحَارِمِ اللَّهِ “
Abu Ubaydah narrated from Jabir ibn Zayd, from Ibn Abbas, from the Prophet (saw), who said: “There is no faith for the one who does not pray, and there is no prayer for the one who does not perform ablution; and there is no fasting except by refraining from what Allah has forbidden.”
Source: Al Jami’ al-Sahih known as Musnad al-Rabi’ b. Habib Hadith #91 (https://openhadith.org/hadith/91)
لَا صِيَامَ—”there is no fast”—not “there is no reward for the fast.” The fast itself does not exist for the one who has not abandoned prohibitions.
The grammatical point reinforces this.
If لَعَلَّ in the Qur’an expresses purpose (the ‘illah for which fasting was prescribed), then taqwa is not something added to fasting. It is the very thing fasting is meant to produce. A fast that does not produce taqwa is like a medicine that does not cure: it was not taken properly, the individual did not follow the instructions.
But the Qur’an makes it very clear : the fasting itself was not real fasting. The person may have gone through the motions, but siyām as Allah defined it never occurred.
The Qur’anic Pattern: Deeds that are “Ḥabiṭa” (Nullified)
This is why the Qur’an speaks of deeds being حَبِطَتْ (nullified, come to nothing):
“Those who disbelieve and avert from the way of Allah. He will waste their deeds.” (Qur’an 47:8)
“O you who have believed, obey Allah and obey the Messenger and do not invalidate your deeds.” (Qur’an 47:33)
The Qur’an and Sunnah repeatedly inform us that disobedience nullifies worship, not merely diminishes its reward. The deed is not stored up and then deducted from. No! It is erased. It never reached the stage of acceptance because it was never truly performed as an act of worship.
“Be quick in the race for forgiveness from your Lord, and for a Garden whose width is that (of the whole) of the heavens and of the earth, prepared for the righteous.” (Qur’an 3:133)
“Those who, upon committing an evil deed or wronging themselves, remember Allah and seek forgiveness for their sins and who forgives sins except Allah? And they do not knowingly persist in wrongdoing.” (Qur’an 3:135)
Examples that would nullify our fasting without doubt:
Watching porn even with no fap.
Deliberately sleeping through an entire prayer time. People literally skip dhur and imagine their fasting is still accepted.
Lying, doing all sorts of evil deeds, fighting with others.
Wasting time in Ramadan.
Wasting time in the month of Ramadan. The month of Ramadan is a barakah. If we do not seize on it by utilizing the time for baraka we literally wasting time.
Allah does not love those who waste.
“O Children of Adam! Dress properly whenever you are at worship. Eat and drink, but do not waste. Surely He does not like the wasteful.” (Qur’an 7:31)
If you are not engaged in something fruitful especially in the month of Ramadan, like reading the Qur’an or reading beneficial books in general. Excercising, doing volunteer work. Assisting those in need rather they be your family, friends or the local community or doing superagatory acts of worship. Then what are you engaged in? Vain and idle talk? Playing video games hours on end? Window shopping with no clear goal or objective.
The phrase: “Passing the time” should be a disliked phrase for us in the blessed month of Ramadan. We should replace ‘passing the time’ with ‘investing with time’ We should be engaging with the time Allah blessed us with. ‘Passing the time’ sounds like one who is in a state of boredom or doing some repetitive taslk in which they find no joy in. ‘Passing the time’ treats time as an obstacle to be endured rather than a blessing to reap. In Ramadan, this is a spiritual failure.
Fasting has not failed to become the spiritual engine of the Muslim Ummah. It is that the Ummah has followed interpretations and misunderstandings that have not allowed the Muslim Ummah to ignite this spiritual engine!
Thus, we particpate in collective movement in Ramadan. We partcipate in collective obstaining from food and drink. But somehow collectively the ummah’s engine is not jump started. The engine is not ignited because the fuel (taqwa) is not being produced.
The Ummah’s engine does not start because we have not connected the fast to its purpose. We have the form. We lack the reality.
If you have enjoyed this article you may like our series on Ramadan here:
May Allah Guide the Ummah.
May Allah Forgive the Ummah.
