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The Rules on Prayer & Fasting 2023

  • Prayer
  • Fasting
    • Conditions and Requirements of Obligatory Fast
    • Obligatory Acts of Fasting
    • Makrūh Acts during a Fast
    • Cases in which Qaḍā’ and Intentional kaffārah Are Obligatory
    • The Kaffārah of Breaking Fast Intentionally
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      The Kaffārah of Breaking Fast Intentionally

       

      887. In the holy Islamic shariah, there are three kinds of kaffārah for intentionally breaking a Ramadan fast:
      a) To free a slave;
      b) to keep fasts for two months;
      c) or to feed sixty poor people.
      Because at the time being there is no slave to be freed, one should choose one of the two other options.
       
      888. Whoever wants to keep fasts for two months as a kaffārah of the fast of Ramadan should keep, at least, (one complete month and one day of the next month) or the 1st 31 days consecutively. As for the rest (29 fasts), if they do not keep them consecutively, it is no problem.
      889. A person who has to fast consecutively, if he does not fast for one day in between without an excuse, or if he starts when he comes across a day in which fasting is forbidden, such as ‘Īd of Aḍḥā, or if it is a day in which fasting is obligatory, for example, when he reaches a day that he has vowed to fast on that day, the days he has fasted are not counted and he must fast again from the beginning.
      890. A person who wants to fast for sixty days, if there is an excuse, such as an illness or menses, in between due to which she is unable to fast, after the excuse is removed, she can continue the rest of the fasts and it is not necessary to start from the beginning.
      891. Feeding sixty poor people can be performed in two ways:
      a- to satisfy them with cooked food, or;
      b- or to provide each one with 750 gm. (one mudd) of a food item, like wheat, flour, bread, or rice.
      892. A poor person is a person who does not have the expenses for himself and his family during the year nor can earn.
      893. If a person is not able to do any of the three options in intentional kaffārah, he should feed as many poor people as he can, and it is a caution to ask Allah for forgiveness as well. If he is not able to feed any poor person, it is enough for him to ask Allah for forgiveness, that is, to say with his heart and tongue: أستغغفر الله (I ask God for forgiveness).
      894. A person whose duty is to ask Allah for forgiveness due to his inability to fast or feed the poor, if he becomes able to fast or feed the poor later, it is mustaḥabb caution for him to do so.
      895. If a person, who wants to feed needy people (as mentioned in the previous rule) as intentional kaffārah, can find 60 needy people, he/she should not pay any of them the share of two or more needy people, i.e. more than one mudd (750 gm.) food, such as wheat, flour, rice, or bread. Rather, it is necessary to give 750 gm. food to any of these 60 people. However, one may give a needy person the shares of his family members so that he/she spends on them. As far as the needy person is concerned, it makes no difference whether it is a child, an adult, a male or a female.
      896. If a fasting person does something that invalidates the fast more than once in one day, only one kaffārah is obligatory for him. Of course, if he invalidates the fast by having sexual intercourse or masturbating, by obligatory caution, he is to pay kaffārah as much as he had sexual intercourse or masturbated.
      897. If someone invalidates his fast in the month of Ramadan by having forbidden sex or consuming forbidden food and drink, one of the three kaffārahs is sufficient, although it is mustaḥabb caution to observe all three kaffārahs (freeing the slave, fasting for sixty days, or giving food to sixty poor people).
      898. A person who is required to observe kaffārah is not obligated to do it immediately, but he should not delay it to such an extent that it is considered as negligence in performing the obligation.
      899. If one does not pay the obligatory kaffārah for a few years, nothing is added to it.
      900. There is no order in performing the qaḍā’ of fasting and its kaffārah, i.e. each can be prioritized over the other.
    • Cases in which Only Qaḍā’ of Fasting Is Obligatory
    • Rulings of Qaḍā’ Fast
    • Kaffārah of Delay
    • The Rulings on Qaḍā’ of One's Parent's Missed Prayers/Fasts
    • Rulings on a Traveler's Fast
    • People for Whom Fast Is not Obligatory
    • Way of Ascertaining the First of a Lunar Month
    • Types of Fasting
    • Conclusion: Fasting Etiquettes and these of the Holy Month of Ramadan
    • I‘tikāf
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