At what age does fasting become obligatory for a child?

Fasting becomes religiously obligatory at puberty, the same point at which all the pillars of worship become binding. The Prophet described accountability itself as beginning then, saying the pen recording deeds is lifted from three: the sleeping person until they wake, the child until they reach puberty, and the person of unsound mind until they recover (Sunan Abi Dawud 4403). Before puberty, a child is not sinful for not fasting, and parents are not obligated to force it — but the Sunnah encourages gradually introducing children to fasting well before that point, so it becomes natural rather than a shock. A common practice reported from the early Muslim community was to have children attempt fasting from around age seven, with allowances for them to break the fast if it became too difficult, gradually building tolerance as they grew, similar to the staged approach used for teaching children the prayer. Puberty itself is marked by physical signs, such as the first menstruation for girls or nocturnal emission and other signs for boys, rather than a fixed birthday, so it can arrive earlier or later for different children. Parents are encouraged to make the introduction to fasting positive and manageable rather than punitive.

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