May my seven-year-old fast the whole of Ramadan?

Fasting only becomes obligatory with maturity, so not yet for a seven-year-old. But it is a good tradition to encourage children to fast so that they get to know it and practise it, with love and good judgement.

Fasting in Ramadan is obligatory for every Muslim who has reached maturity. For children this obligation does not yet apply. A seven-year-old therefore does not have to fast, and no one should pressure them to do so.

When maturity begins cannot be said in the same way for everyone. It depends on the individual and also on the country they live in. In hot countries young people often mature earlier than in cool ones, and even brothers and sisters develop at different speeds. Whoever has become mature is responsible for their own actions and usually knows best whether fasting has become a duty for them.

If a child wants to fast of their own accord, that is still something lovely. It is a good and old tradition to encourage children to fast even before it is obligatory. The hadith above shows that the first Muslims already treated their children in this way. Children thus learn early how a day of fasting feels, and the obligatory fast later comes more easily to them.

Parents can use this opportunity to show their child that fasting is more than hunger and thirst. Ramadan also means getting up early before dawn and offering the voluntary night prayer, Tahajjud. Whether a young child fasts single days or more is for the parents to decide with love and good judgement. For, as the second verse above says, God desires ease and not hardship.