of the increase of the illness and its prolongation; thus, fear of the recurrence of illness is similar in meaning. Ahmad said regarding a person with an overwhelming desire for intercourse who fears that his testicles (5) might burst: he is permitted to break his fast. Regarding a young girl, he said: She should fast when she menstruates, but if fasting exhausts her, she should break the fast and make it up. He means if she menstruates while she is young and has not reached fifteen years of age. Al-Qadi said: This is if she fears illness from fasting, in which case it is permitted for her to break the fast; otherwise, it is not.

Section: As for the one who is permitted to break the fast due to the intensity of his sexual urge, if it is possible for him to repel the desire without intercourse (6), such as through masturbation by his hand, or by the hand of his wife or slave-girl, then intercourse is not permitted for him; because it is a breaking of the fast due to necessity, and it is not permitted for him to exceed what is required to repel the necessity, just like eating carrion in a state of necessity. If he does engage in intercourse, he must pay the expiation (kaffarah). Likewise, if it is possible for him to repel it with something that does not corrupt the fast of another, such as having intercourse with his wife or his young slave-girl, or a woman from the People of the Book, or by engaging in foreplay (7) with his Muslim wife without vaginal intercourse, or by masturbation using her hand or his own hand, then it is not permitted for him to corrupt the fast of another; for when the necessity is repelled, what is beyond it is not permitted, just like eating one's fill of carrion when the necessity is repelled by merely sustaining one's life. If the necessity cannot be repelled except by corrupting the fast of another, it is permitted; for it is something for which necessity calls, so it is permitted just like his own breaking of the fast, and like the pregnant and nursing woman who break their fast out of fear for their children. If he has two wives—one menstruating and one pure and fasting—and necessity compels him to have intercourse with one of them, there are two possibilities: First, having intercourse with the fasting one is preferable; because Allah the Almighty explicitly forbade having intercourse with the menstruating woman in His Book, and because having intercourse with her involves an impurity that does not cease with the need for intercourse. Second, he has a choice; because having intercourse with the fasting woman corrupts her fast, so the two corruptions conflict and they are therefore equal.