For a traveller to be allowed to break his fast, certain conditions must be met. His journey should be lengthy, or else be known as travelling (Some Scholars differ on this) and should go beyond the city and its suburbs.
A person isn't counted as a traveller until he has left the city: if he is still within the city, he is regarded as one who is settled, so he is not permitted to shorten his prayers). His journey should also not be a journey for sinful purposes (according to the majority of the scholars). or for trying to get out of having to fast. If he starts Ramadan in one city then travels to another city where the people started fasting before him or after him, then he should follow the ruling governing the people to whom he has travelled, so he should only end Ramadan when they end Ramadan, even if it means he is fasting for more than 30 days, because the Rasul (peace be upon him) said: "Fast when everyone is fasting, and break your fast when everyone is breaking their fast," (Tirmidhi). If it means that this fast is less than 29 days, he must make it up after eid , because the hijri month can't be less than 29 days.
Whoever is determined to travel in Ramadan should not have the intention of breaking his fast until he is actually travelling, because something may happen to prevent him from travelling. The traveler should not break his fast until he has passed beyond the inhabited houses of his town: once he has passed the city limits. he may break his fast. Similarly, if he is flying. once the plane has taken off and has gone beyond the city limit, he may break his fast.
If the airport is outside his city. he can break his fast there. If the sun sets and he breaks his fast on the ground, then the plane takes off and he sees the sun, he doesn't have to stop eating, because he has already completed his days fasting and there is no way to repeat an act of worship mat is finished.
If the plane takes off before sunset and he wants to complete that days fasting during the journey,. he should not break his fast until the sun has set . from wherever he is in the air. The pilot isnt permitted to bring the plane down to an altitude from which the sun cant be seen just for the purpose of breaking the fast, because this would just be a kind of trickery. But if he brings it lower for a genuine reason. and the disk of the sun disappears as a result, then he may break it. Whoever travels to a place and intends to stay there for more than four days must fast, according some scholars.
If a person travels to study abroad for a period of months or years. then according to majority of scholars including the four Imams, he is regarded as one who is "settled" there and so he has to fast and pray his prayer full. If a traveller passes through a city oilier than his own, he doesnt have to fast. unless his stay there is longer than four days, in which case he must fast, because the rulings that apply to those who are settled apply also to him.
This article was culled from the publications of Deen Communication Limited