Short answer
No. Smelling food while cooking, wearing perfume or attar and using deodorant do not break the fast, and in the Hanafi school they are not even disliked. What does break it is deliberately breathing in smoke, such as the smoke of bakhoor or oud incense.
Smelling food, flowers or perfume does not break the fast, and applying perfume is not makruh. Deliberately inhaling smoke, such as incense held to the nose, breaks the fast, and one day is made up. Smoke or dust that reaches the throat without your choice does not break it.
Other madhhabs
- Shafi'i
- Smelling perfume is disliked for the fasting person, though it does not break the fast.
- Maliki
- Smelling perfume is disliked, but the fast is not broken.
- Hanbali
- Smelling things that can be drawn into the nose, such as powdered musk, is disliked.
Explanation
Many people cooking iftar worry that smelling the food breaks the fast. It does not. A smell is not a thing that reaches the stomach, and the four schools agree that the fast is not broken by it.
Perfume and attar. The Hanafi school allows the fasting person to wear perfume, attar, oils and deodorant with no dislike. The other schools also say the fast is valid, though some of them dislike smelling perfume while fasting. The usual guidance on women wearing perfume outside the home is the same in Ramadan.
Incense and smoke. Here the Hanafi school draws a line. If you deliberately bring smoke to your nose and breathe it in, such as bakhoor, oud or agarbatti, the fast is broken, because smoke is made of fine particles you have drawn in on purpose. Make up one day. Incense burning in a room that you smell without leaning in to inhale it does not break the fast, and neither does cooking smoke, traffic fumes or dust that you cannot avoid.
- Smelling food while cooking: fine.
- Wearing perfume, attar or deodorant: fine.
- Smelling flowers or coffee: fine.
- Holding your face over bakhoor smoke to breathe it in: breaks the fast.
- Sitting in a room where incense is burning: fine.
For tasting food while cooking, see tasting food. For perfume that contains alcohol, see perfume with alcohol.
The evidence
Quran, Surah Al-Baqara 2:187
أُحِلَّ لَكُمْ لَيْلَةَ ٱلصِّيَامِ ٱلرَّفَثُ إِلَىٰ نِسَآئِكُمْ ۚ هُنَّ لِبَاسٌۭ لَّكُمْ وَأَنتُمْ لِبَاسٌۭ لَّهُنَّ ۗ عَلِمَ ٱللَّهُ أَنَّكُمْ كُنتُمْ تَخْتَانُونَ أَنفُسَكُمْ فَتَابَ عَلَيْكُمْ وَعَفَا عَنكُمْ ۖ فَٱلْـَٰٔنَ بَٰشِرُوهُنَّ وَٱبْتَغُوا۟ مَا كَتَبَ ٱللَّهُ لَكُمْ ۚ وَكُلُوا۟ وَٱشْرَبُوا۟ حَتَّىٰ يَتَبَيَّنَ لَكُمُ ٱلْخَيْطُ ٱلْأَبْيَضُ مِنَ ٱلْخَيْطِ ٱلْأَسْوَدِ مِنَ ٱلْفَجْرِ ۖ ثُمَّ أَتِمُّوا۟ ٱلصِّيَامَ إِلَى ٱلَّيْلِ ۚ وَلَا تُبَٰشِرُوهُنَّ وَأَنتُمْ عَٰكِفُونَ فِى ٱلْمَسَٰجِدِ ۗ تِلْكَ حُدُودُ ٱللَّهِ فَلَا تَقْرَبُوهَا ۗ كَذَٰلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ ٱللَّهُ ءَايَٰتِهِۦ لِلنَّاسِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَّقُونَ ﴿١٨٧﴾
It has been made permissible for you the night preceding fasting to go to your wives [for sexual relations]. They are clothing for you and you are clothing for them. Allah knows that you used to deceive yourselves, so He accepted your repentance and forgave you. So now, have relations with them and seek that which Allah has decreed for you. And eat and drink until the white thread of dawn becomes distinct to you from the black thread [of night]. Then complete the fast until the sunset. And do not have relations with them as long as you are staying for worship in the mosques. These are the limits [set by] Allah, so do not approach them. Thus does Allah make clear His ordinances to the people that they may become righteous.
The fast is from what is eaten and drunk, not from what is smelled.
Where the ruling is recorded
- Radd al-Muhtar (Ibn Abidin), Kitab al-Sawm, chapter on what breaks the fast and what does not. Whoever deliberately brings incense close and inhales its smoke breaks the fast; smelling roses or musk does not.
- Nur al-Idah with Maraqi al-Falah, Kitab al-Sawm, chapter on what is disliked and not disliked for the fasting person. Applying perfume and oil is not disliked for the fasting person.
Checked by our team. For a more accurate answer to your own situation, consult a scholar. Quran translation by Sahih International. Hadith Arabic from the standard editions of the six books and the Muwatta, with gradings as recorded there; the English is our own rendering. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.