Your baby’s first Ramaḍān and Eid

1Fasting while pregnant or nursing

The Prophet ﷺ said: “Allah has lifted half the prayer from the traveller, and lifted fasting from the traveller and from the nursing or the pregnant woman” (Abū Dāwūd 2408; al-Tirmidhī 715)^2,3. Al-Albānī graded it ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ, and al-Tirmidhī ḥasan².

So if fasting would harm you or your baby, you do not fast. All four schools agree that a pregnant or nursing woman who fears for herself breaks the fast and makes up the days later, with nothing more owed; Ibn Qudāmah knew of no disagreement about this⁴. They differ when the fear is for the baby alone: whether, besides making up, she also feeds a poor person for each day (fidyah).

Ibn ʿAbbās and Ibn ʿUmar held that such a mother feeds a poor person for each day instead of making up (Abū Dāwūd 2318)^5,6. The four schools all require the make-up; the box shows where they part on the feeding.

1. Talk to your doctor first

   Ask before Ramaḍān whether fasting is safe in your pregnancy, or while your baby is feeding as they are now.

2. Note why you did not fast

   Fear for yourself, or for the baby only? In three schools that decides whether fidyah is owed.^6,4,7

3. Keep a list of the days

   Write down the days you missed, so the make-up is simple later.⁸

4. Make up when you are able

   There is no rush while you are still pregnant or nursing; the make-up does not have to be done on consecutive days.^8,7

2If Ramaḍān comes during nifās

While the bleeding after birth lasts, you do not fast, and you make up the missed days later, as with a period. ʿĀʾishah said: “We were told to make up the fasts, and we were not told to make up the prayers” (Muslim 335)¹⁰. Ibn Qudāmah knew of no disagreement that this applies to nifās too¹¹.

When the bleeding stops and you have done ghusl, you fast and pray again, even if forty days have not passed¹¹. The schools’ limits for nifās are in the guide for mothers (For mothers).

3Your baby’s first Ramaḍān

There is nothing a baby must do in Ramaḍān, and nothing you must do for them. What you can do is let them grow up inside it: the sound of Qurʾān in the house, the smell of iftar, a family that wakes for suḥūr.

Night feeds and suḥūr often fall at the same hour. Whoever is up with the baby can make duʿāʾ in the last third of the night, quietly, with the baby asleep on them. If you are not fasting this year, you are still in Ramaḍān: dhikr, duʿāʾ, charity and kindness are all open to you.

1. Share the nights

   Take turns with your spouse, so each of you gets some sleep and some quiet worship.

2. Tarāwīḥ with a baby

   If you go to the masjid, sit near the back or in a family room, and step out if the baby cries. Praying at home is good too.

3. Keep a small record

   A photo at the first iftar, or a line in a notebook: “Your first Ramaḍān.” Children love these later.

4Zakāt al-fiṭr for your newborn

Zakāt al-fiṭr is due for every Muslim, “young and old”, before the Eid prayer (Bukhārī 1503)¹². A baby’s is paid by whoever provides for them, usually the father¹³. Ibn ʿUmar gave it for young and old, and people gave it a day or two before Eid (Bukhārī 1511)¹⁴.

The question for a newborn is timing: is a baby born at the very end of Ramaḍān included? It depends on the moment each school says it becomes due. For example, a baby born at 4 pm on the last day of Ramaḍān is included in every school. A baby born at 9 pm that night is included for the Ḥanafīs, and for the Mālikīs on one of their two views; for the Shāfiʿīs and Ḥanbalīs it is not owed.

5Your baby’s first Eid

Eid is meant to be a day of joy. When Abū Bakr objected to two girls singing in ʿĀʾishah’s home on Eid, the Prophet ﷺ said: “Abū Bakr, every people has its festival, and this is our festival” (Bukhārī 952)¹⁹. Before going out on Eid al-Fiṭr he ate an odd number of dates (Bukhārī 953)²⁰.

Bring the baby. Ibn ʿAbbās went to the Eid prayer with the Prophet ﷺ as a small boy (Bukhārī 977)²¹. The Prophet ﷺ told the women to come out too, even women in their periods, “to witness the good and the believers’ prayers”, while those not praying keep away from the prayer rows themselves (Bukhārī 324, 974)^22,23. The scholars apply this to women after childbirth as well: Ibn Qudāmah writes that a woman in nifās is like a woman in her period in all that is forbidden to her and lifted from her, and knew of no disagreement about it¹¹. So a new mother who is not yet praying can still come, sit with the women, and join the takbīr and the duʿāʾ.

When the Companions met on Eid they said to one another, “Taqabbala Llāhu minnā wa-minkum”, “may Allah accept from us and from you”²⁴. It is a lovely thing for your baby’s first Eid photo, too.

1. Pay zakāt al-fiṭr first

   For yourself and the baby, before the Eid prayer; a day or two early is fine.^12,14

2. Pack light

   A carrier is easier than a stroller on a crowded prayer field. Bring a blanket, a muslin, ear protection if the place is loud, and water for you.

3. Pick a spot

   Sit near the edge of the women’s area, so you can step away to feed or settle the baby.

4. Visit and be visited

   Eid is a natural day for family to meet the baby. Keep visits short if you are still recovering.

Sources

1. Qurʾān, al-Baqarah 2:185 “Allah wants ease for you, and does not want hardship for you.”
2. Sunan Abī Dāwūd 2408 (Anas ibn Mālik al-Kaʿbī); also Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī 715, Sunan al-Nasāʾī 2275 “Allah has lifted half the prayer from the traveller, and lifted fasting from the traveller and from the nursing or the pregnant woman.” Grading: ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ: al-Albānī (sunnah.com); al-Tirmidhī: ḥasan; Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾūṭ: “its chain is strong” (Takhrīj Zād al-Maʿād 2/29).
3. Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī 715 The same report of Anas ibn Mālik al-Kaʿbī; al-Tirmidhī calls it ḥasan. Grading: ḥasan: al-Tirmidhī; Darussalam: ḥasan.
4. Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī (Ḥanbalī) 3/149–150 Fearing for herself: she breaks the fast and only makes up; “we know of no disagreement”. Fearing for the child: she makes up and feeds a poor person for each day, as reported from Ibn ʿUmar.
5. Sunan Abī Dāwūd 2318 (Ibn ʿAbbās, on al-Baqarah 2:184) Ibn ʿAbbās: the ransom was a concession for the very old, and for the pregnant and nursing woman when they fear harm: they break the fast and feed a poor person for each day. Grading: al-Nawawī: “Abū Dāwūd reports it with a ḥasan chain” (al-Majmūʿ 6/267). al-Albānī called this wording shādhdh (sunnah.com) but graded Saʿīd ibn Jubayr’s report from Ibn ʿAbbās, “if they fear for their children they break the fast and feed”, ṣaḥīḥ (Irwāʾ al-Ghalīl 913).
6. al-Nawawī, al-Majmūʿ (Shāfiʿī) 6/267–269 Fearing for herself (or for herself and the child): she breaks the fast and makes up, with no fidyah, without disagreement. Fearing only for the child: she makes up, and the soundest view is that she also gives a mudd of food for each day. 6/269 lists the other views: Ibn ʿUmar and Ibn ʿAbbās (feed only, no make-up), Abū Ḥanīfah (make up only), Mālik (pregnant make up only; nursing make up and feed).
7. al-Dardīr, al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr, with Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī (Mālikī) 1/535–537 A pregnant or nursing woman who fears illness for the child may break the fast, and must if she fears death or severe harm. Pregnancy counts as an illness, so the pregnant woman makes up only, “unlike the nursing woman”, who also feeds a poor person a mudd for each day. If a nursing mother can hire a wet nurse (or the baby takes another’s milk), she fasts. Feeding for a late make-up is not due when an excuse such as nifās lasted until the next Ramaḍān.
8. Ibn ʿĀbidīn, Radd al-Muḥtār (Ḥanafī) 2/422–423 (Faṣl fī al-ʿawāriḍ) A pregnant or nursing woman, mother or wet nurse, who fears “by strong likelihood” for herself or her child may break the fast. She makes the days up later “without fidyah”, and they need not be consecutive. If the next Ramaḍān comes first, she fasts it and makes up afterwards, still without fidyah.
9. al-Buhūtī, Kashshāf al-Qināʿ (Ḥanbalī) 2/312–313 Fearing harm to herself: she may break the fast like a sick person. Fearing only for the child: she feeds a poor person for each day along with the make-up. If the baby takes another’s breast and she can pay a nurse, she does so and does not break the fast.
10. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 335c ʿĀʾishah, on the monthly period: that would happen to us, and we were told to make up the fasts, and we were not told to make up the prayers.
11. Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī 1:250–252, 254 The longest nifās is forty days (Mālik and al-Shāfiʿī said sixty). It has no shortest time: whenever she sees she is clean, she bathes and she is pure; he adds that her husband should wait out the forty days as a recommendation. If bleeding goes past forty and matches her usual period, it is her period; otherwise istiḥāḍah, and she prays. 1:254: the woman in nifās is like the menstruating woman in all that is forbidden to her and lifted from her, “we know of no disagreement in this”.
12. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1503 Ibn ʿUmar: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ made zakāt al-fiṭr obligatory, a ṣāʿ of dates or barley, on every Muslim, “young and old”, to be given before the people go out to the prayer.
13. Ibn ʿĀbidīn, Radd al-Muḥtār (Ḥanafī) 2/361 and 2/367 (Bāb ṣadaqat al-fiṭr) It is due for oneself and for one’s young child who has no wealth (not for a baby still in the womb). It becomes due “at the dawn of the day of Fiṭr”: a child born after that dawn owes none. Best given after that dawn and before going out to the prayer.
14. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1511 Nāfiʿ: Ibn ʿUmar gave zakāt al-fiṭr for young and old, even for my children, and people used to give it a day or two before Eid.
15. al-Dardīr, al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr, with Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī (Mālikī) 1/505 Two views: it becomes due at sunset on the last day of Ramaḍān, or at dawn on the day of Eid. A child born before sunset owes it on both views; a child born after sunset and before dawn owes it only on the second.
16. al-Nawawī, al-Majmūʿ (Shāfiʿī) 6/125–128 The soundest view (al-Shāfiʿī’s later position) is that it becomes due at sunset on the night of Eid. A child born after sunset, even before dawn, owes none on that view; the old view used dawn.
17. Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī (Ḥanbalī) 3/89 It becomes due at sunset on the last day of Ramaḍān: “whoever has a child born to him … before sunset owes the fiṭrah; if after sunset, it is not binding on him.”
18. al-Buhūtī, Kashshāf al-Qināʿ (Ḥanbalī) 2/249 It is not obligatory for a baby still in the womb, “but it is recommended”, following ʿUthmān; Abū Qilābah said the early Muslims liked to give it “even for the child in its mother’s womb”.
19. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 952 Two girls of the Anṣār sang at ʿĀʾishah’s home on Eid. The Prophet ﷺ said: “Abū Bakr, every people has its festival, and this is our festival.”
20. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 953 Anas: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ did not go out on the morning of Eid al-Fiṭr until he had eaten some dates, and he ate an odd number.
21. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 977 Ibn ʿAbbās was at the Eid prayer with the Prophet ﷺ as a young boy: “I would not have been there, had I not been so young.”
22. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 324 Umm ʿAṭiyyah: the Prophet ﷺ said the young women, those who keep to their homes, and the women in their periods should come out on Eid “to witness the good and the believers’ prayers”, and that women in their periods keep away from the prayer place itself.
23. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 974 Umm ʿAṭiyyah: we were told to bring out the young women on Eid; in Ḥafṣah’s report, the women in their periods keep away from the prayer place.
24. Jubayr ibn Nufayr, reported by Ibn Ḥajar, Fatḥ al-Bārī 2/517 When the Companions met on the day of Eid they would say to one another: “May Allah accept from us and from you.” Grading: Ibn Ḥajar: “its chain is ḥasan” (Fatḥ al-Bārī 2/517); al-Albānī: “its chain is ṣaḥīḥ” (Tamām al-Minnah 354).
25. Wāthilah ibn al-Asqaʿ: he said “taqabbal Allāhu minnā wa-minka” to the Prophet ﷺ on Eid and the Prophet ﷺ answered with the same (al-Bayhaqī, al-Sunan al-Kubrā 3/319; Ibn ʿAdī, al-Kāmil 7/524) The version that makes the greeting the Prophet’s own words. Grading: munkar: Ibn ʿAdī. Ibn Ḥajar: its narrator Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Shāmī is weak and alone in making it the Prophet’s words (Fatḥ al-Bārī 2/517). al-Bayhaqī: not preserved as the Prophet’s words.

Read next

• For mothers: your first forty daysFor the new mother: the rulings of nifās in the four schools, nursing and rest, the warning signs that should not wait, and where to call if your heart grows heavy.
• Duʿāʾ for a newbornThe duʿāʾs from the Qurʾān and the Sunnah to say in labour, over your new baby, when people admire them, and when friends congratulate you, with what a mother in nifās may recite in each school.
• The seventh dayThe ʿaqīqah, shaving your baby’s hair and giving its weight in silver, and how to count the seventh day, with each ruling from the four schools’ own books.