Short answer
Yes. Smoking cigarettes or shisha, and vaping, break the fast in all four schools, because you deliberately draw a substance into your mouth and throat. In the Hanafi school, doing it on purpose during a Ramadan fast requires qada and also kaffarah, since it is something the body craves.
Deliberately smoking or vaping breaks the fast. When done intentionally during a Ramadan fast, the Hanafi fatwa recorded in Radd al-Muhtar requires both qada and kaffarah, as with eating and drinking. Smoke that enters the throat without your choice, such as from someone else's cigarette, does not break the fast.
Other madhhabs
- Shafi'i
- Smoking breaks the fast and requires qada and repentance, but kaffarah is only due for intercourse.
- Hanbali
- Smoking breaks the fast and requires qada, but kaffarah is only due for intercourse.
Explanation
Cigarette smoke, shisha smoke and vape aerosol all carry particles and liquid into the mouth, throat and lungs, and you take them in on purpose. The Hanafi jurists said long ago that deliberately drawing smoke into the throat breaks the fast, and a vape delivers liquid droplets, which is even clearer.
Kaffarah. Ibn Abidin records that a person who deliberately smokes tobacco during a Ramadan fast owes kaffarah as well as qada, because people crave it the way they crave food. The kaffarah is sixty days of fasting in a row. Many Hanafi fatwa bodies apply the same ruling to vaping. See what happens if you break your fast on purpose and the kaffarah calculator.
- Second-hand smoke you could not avoid: fast is valid.
- Deliberately breathing in incense smoke: fast is broken.
- Smelling perfume or food: fast is valid.
- Nicotine patches, which work through the skin: fast is valid.
Ramadan is a good time to quit. If you go from suhoor to iftar without smoking for a month, you have already done the hardest part. The ruling on smoking itself is covered in the food and drink section.
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 means holding back from what you take in until sunset, and smoke is taken in on purpose.
Where the ruling is recorded
- Radd al-Muhtar (Ibn Abidin), Kitab al-Sawm, chapter on what breaks the fast and what does not. Deliberately drawing smoke into the throat breaks the fast; smoking tobacco deliberately in Ramadan requires kaffarah as well.
- al-Durr al-Mukhtar, Kitab al-Sawm, chapter on what breaks the fast and what does not. Smoke that enters without choice does not break the fast, since it cannot be avoided.
- Kashshaf al-Qina', Kitab al-Siyam. The Hanbali view that kaffarah in fasting is for intercourse only.
This answer is pending review by the scholars on our team. 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.