Short answer
Yes. In the Hanafi school, if your Ramadan fast breaks during the day, on purpose or by a mistake, you must keep away from food, drink and intimacy until sunset out of respect for the month, and still make up the day. Someone whose excuse continues, such as a sick person or a traveller still on the road, does not have to.
Imsak (holding back for the rest of the day) is wajib for anyone whose Ramadan fast broke without a continuing excuse, and for anyone whose excuse ends during the day: a traveller who arrives home, a woman whose period ends, a child who reaches puberty or a new Muslim. All of them make up the day except the child and the new Muslim. A sick person or traveller who is still excused may eat.
Other madhhabs
- Shafi'i
- Holding back is required for someone who broke the fast without an excuse or by a mistake about the time, but only recommended for a traveller who arrives or a woman whose period ends.
- Maliki
- Holding back is required for someone who broke the fast deliberately, but not for those whose excuse ended during the day.
Explanation
A Ramadan day is not like a voluntary fast that you can simply drop. Its time is sacred. So in the Hanafi school, if your fast breaks during the day, the day does not become an ordinary day: you hold back from food, drink and intimacy until sunset, as if you were still fasting, and then make up the day after Ramadan.
There is a basis for this in the sunnah. When the fast of Ashura was still obligatory, the Prophet ﷺ sent a man to announce that whoever had already eaten should fast the rest of the day, and whoever had not eaten should fast.
Who must hold back:
- Someone who broke the fast on purpose, who may also owe kaffarah. See breaking the fast on purpose.
- Someone who broke it by a mistake, such as water going down in wudu or eating after dawn thinking it was still night.
- A traveller who returns home, or a woman whose period ends, during the day.
- A child who reaches puberty, or someone who becomes Muslim, during the day. These two do not have to make up the day.
Who may eat: a sick person who still needs to, a traveller still on the journey and a woman who is still menstruating. They eat discreetly, out of respect for those fasting.
If you ate because you forgot, your fast was never broken: just stop and carry on. See eating by mistake. A voluntary fast is different: if it breaks, you need not hold back for the rest of the day. See breaking a voluntary fast.
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 day of Ramadan is to be kept until sunset.
Sahih al-Bukhari 2007
Sahih... أن من كان أكل فليصم بقية يومه ومن لم يكن أكل فليصم ...
"Whoever has eaten should fast the rest of his day, and whoever has not eaten should fast."
Holding back for the rest of an obligatory fasting day after eating has a basis in the sunnah.
Where the ruling is recorded
- al-Hidaya, Kitab al-Sawm, chapter on what requires qada and kaffarah. The traveller who arrives and the menstruating woman who becomes pure hold back for the rest of the day.
- Radd al-Muhtar (Ibn Abidin), Kitab al-Sawm, chapter on excuses that allow breaking the fast. Holding back for the rest of the day is wajib in the sound view for whoever's fast broke or whose excuse ended.
- al-Majmu' (Nawawi), Kitab al-Siyam. The Shafi'i distinction between those who must hold back and those for whom it is recommended.
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.