Q.| If one has failed to fast during the month of Ramadan without a legitimate reason and is now financially incapable of providing food to 60 needy persons for every day one failed to fast^[1] or to alternatively observe 60 days of punitive fasting,^[2] what is one’s obligation?

A.| A person who has deliberately failed to fast during the month of Ramadan and is incapable of feeding 60 needy individuals or observing 60 days of punitive fasting must feed as many needy individuals as he can and as a caution ask God for forgiveness. If he is incapable of providing any amount of food to the needy, he only needs to ask God for forgiveness by earnestly and wholeheartedly uttering the prayer astaghfirullāh (“I ask God to forgive me”).

[1] Offering food to 60 needy persons is the financial penalty for deliberately failing to fast for one day during the month of Ramadan.
[2] Observing 60 days of punitive fasting (ṣawm al-kaffārah) is the alternative non-financial penalty for deliberately failing to fast a day during the month of Ramadan.