Short answer
In the Hanafi school kaffarah plus one day of qada is due only when you deliberately break an actual Ramadan fast, intended from the night, without excuse or doubt (shubhah), by intercourse or by eating or drinking food, drink or medicine. Everything else that breaks a fast, such as mistakes, force, non-food items, nasal or rectal medicine, or deliberate vomiting, needs qada only.
Kaffarah needs all of these: a Ramadan fast being kept on its day (not qada, nafl or a vow), intended from the night, broken deliberately and knowingly with no excuse or shubhah (a doubt that makes breaking it seem allowed), by intercourse or by taking nourishment or medicine by mouth. If any condition is missing, only qada is due. Kaffarah also falls away if illness or menstruation, not self-caused, begins later that same day.
Other madhhabs
- Shafi'i
- Kaffarah is due only for intercourse in a Ramadan fast; deliberate eating and drinking need qada and repentance but no kaffarah.
- Hanbali
- Kaffarah is due only for intercourse; eating and drinking on purpose need qada only.
Explanation
People mix up three rulings. A fast can stay valid, be broken with qada (one make-up day), or be broken with qada and kaffarah (one make-up day plus sixty consecutive fasts). Here is the Hanafi breakdown.
Qada and kaffarah:
- Intercourse in a Ramadan fast, whether or not there is ejaculation.
- Deliberately eating or drinking ordinary food or drink.
- Deliberately taking medicine by mouth with no excuse.
- Smoking a cigarette or hookah on purpose, in the fatwa of many Hanafi muftis.
Qada only:
- Eating after true dawn or before sunset by mistake about the time.
- Water going down the throat in wudu while you remembered the fast.
- Being forced to eat or drink.
- Swallowing something not normally eaten: a pebble, paper, a coin, raw rice, or food stuck between the teeth the size of a chickpea.
- Nasal sprays, ear drops (classical view), enemas and suppositories.
- Vomiting a mouthful on purpose.
- Ejaculation from kissing, touching or masturbation.
- Eating on purpose after eating forgetfully, thinking the fast was already broken (a shubhah).
- Breaking a qada, nafl, vowed or kaffarah fast.
- Breaking a Ramadan fast you only intended in the morning.
- Breaking the fast because of illness, travel, pregnancy or real harm.
Nothing at all: eating forgetfully, a wet dream, unintended vomiting, dust or a fly entering the throat, eye drops, oil on the skin, injections. See the what breaks your fast checker, breaking the fast on purpose and fidya, qada and kaffarah compared.
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 must be completed until sunset; breaking it has consequences.
Sahih al-Bukhari 1936
Sahih... وقعت على امرأتي وأنا صائم ...
"I had intercourse with my wife while I was fasting."
The basis of kaffarah for deliberately violating a Ramadan fast.
Sunan Abi Dawud 2380
Graded sahih... من ذرعه قيء وهو صائم فليس عليه قضاء وإن استقاء فليقض ...
"Whoever is overcome by vomiting while fasting owes no make-up, and whoever makes himself vomit must make up the day."
Some acts break the fast with qada only.
Where the ruling is recorded
- al-Hidaya, Kitab al-Sawm, chapter on what requires qada and kaffarah. The acts that require kaffarah and those that require qada alone.
- al-Durr al-Mukhtar, Kitab al-Sawm, chapter on what corrupts the fast. The conditions of kaffarah, and its falling away when illness or menstruation occurs the same day.
- Minhaj al-Talibin, Kitab al-Siyam, section on kaffarah. The Shafi'i limitation of kaffarah to intercourse.
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.