In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the Worlds. Prayers and salutations be upon the Master of the Messengers ﷺ, and upon his family and Companions. There is no power nor strength except through Allah, the Mighty, the Wise.
The majority of the fuqahāʾ from the Mālikī, Shāfiʿī, and Ḥanbalī schools held that whoever delays making up missed Ramaḍān fasts without a valid excuse until the following Ramaḍān begins incurs sin, and fidya becomes obligatory upon him in addition to the obligation of making up the missed fasts. If he delayed making up the fasts despite being able to do so, and then died, the fidya is to be paid from his estate. The recipients of the fidya are the poor and needy.
Fidya consists of feeding one poor person for each missed day. Its amount is estimated as follows:
- According to the Mālikī and Shāfiʿī jurists, it is one mudd of food for each day (approximately 750 grams).
- According to the Ḥanbalī jurists, it is one mudd of wheat (approximately 750 grams) or half a ṣāʿ of other staple foods (approximately 1,500 grams).
Their evidence is that this ḥukm has been transmitted from a number of the Noble Companions, with no known disagreement from any of them.
Imām Ibn Qudāma (Allah have mercy upon him) said:
Our evidence is what has been narrated from Ibn ʿUmar, Ibn ʿAbbās, and Abū Hurayra, that they said: “He should feed one poor person for each day.” No contrary view has been transmitted from any other Companion. It has also been narrated as a marfūʿ report through a weak sanad. Moreover, delaying the fast of Ramaḍān beyond its appointed time, when it does not necessitate making it up, necessitates fidyah, as in the case of the very elderly person.
Imām Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī (Allah have mercy upon him) said:
Whoever delays making up Ramaḍān fasts despite being able to do so—meaning that he is free from travel and illness—until another Ramaḍān begins, must, together with making up the fasts, give one mudd for each day. This is because six of the Companions )Allah be pleased with them) issued fatwā to this effect, and no one is known to have opposed them.
ʿAllāma al-Dardīr (Allah have mercy upon him) said:
Feeding the amount of his ﷺ mudd is wājib upon the negligent person; that is, upon one who was negligent in making up Ramaḍān until the like of it arrived, namely until the second Ramaḍān began.
ʿAllāmah al-Buhūtī (Allah have mercy upon him) said:
If he delays it—that is, the makeup of Ramaḍān—until another Ramaḍān, or delays it for several Ramaḍāns, then he must make it up and feed one poor person for each day with an amount that suffices in expiation. Saʿīd narrated this with a sound sanad from Ibn ʿAbbās concerning the case of one who delayed it until another Ramaḍān.
However, if the delay in making up the fasts occurred due to a valid excuse, such as illness, travel, or an unavoidable occupation extending until after the next Ramaḍān, then fidya is not obligatory; rather, only making up the missed fasts remains obligatory.
Imām al-Shirbīnī (Allah have mercy upon him) said:
If he was unable to make them up because his excuse continued, such as if he remained travelling or ill, or in the case of a woman who remained pregnant or breastfeeding until Ramaḍān entered, then no fidya is due upon him for this delay. This is because delaying performance due to such an excuse is permissible, so delaying makeup for that reason is even more deserving of permissibility.
The sounder view according to the Shāfiʿī fuqahāʾ is that fidya is repeated for each year that goes by, as financial liabilities—according to them—do not merge into one another.
Proper Conduct & Etiquette
When a mukallaf person is required to make up all or part of Ramaḍān, then if the fast was missed due to a valid excuse—such as menstruation, postnatal bleeding, illness, unconsciousness, travel, forgetting the intention, eating while believing it was still night only for it to become clear that it was already daytime, or in the case of a breastfeeding or pregnant woman—it is recommended to hasten in making it up.
Allah, Exalted is He, says: ﴾So hasten towards good deeds﴿ [Qurʾān 2:148]. And He, Most High, says: ﴾And hasten towards forgiveness from your Lord and a Garden whose width is the heavens and the earth, prepared for the Allah-conscious﴿ [Qurʾān 3:133].
However, if a person missed the fast of Ramaḍān without a valid excuse, then he must hasten to repent and make up the missed fast.
It is narrated on the authority of Abū Hurayra (Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Hasten to perform good deeds before seven things occur. Are you waiting for anything other than poverty that makes one forgetful, wealth that makes one transgress, illness that ruins, senility that weakens the mind, death that comes suddenly, the Dajjāl—and he is the worst absent one awaited—or the Hour; and the Hour is more calamitous and more bitter.” Narrated by al-Tirmidhī §2306.
Imām al-Ghazālī (Allah have mercy upon him) said:
Whoever fails to hasten to repentance and delays it through procrastination is between two grave dangers:
- The first is that the darkness of sins may accumulate upon his heart until it becomes a stain and a seal, no longer accepting erasure.
- The second is that illness or death may overtake him suddenly, leaving him no time to engage in removing it.
For this reason, it has been reported that most of the cries of the people of Hellfire will be due to procrastination. Thus, none who perished did so except through procrastination.
