17/02/2025
Let's Reason Together
Is Fidyah Obligatory On The One Who Delayed in Making Up Missed Fasts?
Making up the missed days of Ramadan is an obligatory act in Islam. That is, if someone misses one or more days or even the entire month of Ramadan for a valid reason, he or she is under obligation to make up those days later after Ramadan. This making up of missed days is referred to as Qadaa. Allah SWT emphasizes the compulsion of Qadaa in the Holy Qur'an, (see Surah al-Baqarah, Qur'an Chapter 2 Verse 185).
Qadaa is legislated for those who missed days of fasting for genuine reasons like illness or journey or menstruation, childbirth etc....
As for those who intentionally break their fast or intentionally missed days, Qadaa is not sufficient, rather, there is a penalty attached to the Qadaa known as Kaffarah which will be discussed in another post Insha Allah.
Whoever does not fast some days of Ramadan has to make up those days before the next Ramadan comes.
Qadaa takes the rulings of the missed fast. Therefore, the intention for observing Qadaa must be declared at night before dawn. Also, if you have missed more than one Ramadan then when declaring the intention, it is necessary to specify the Ramadan for which you are observing the Qadaa.
In addition, you must observe all other rules of fasting as was done in Ramadan with the exception of the Taraweeh prayers.
The instructions about making up missed days are pretty simple. All you need to do is to count the amount of days and observe fast or pay for those days.
You may designate the days at your convenience time as long as they are not days of Eid.
The Month of Shawwal (the tenth month) is a great and ideal month for the making up of missed days since in fact, it comes immediately after Ramadan, when the body is still in the fasting mindset and can easily cope with a few additional days of fasting. However, you are free to select the day you want to observe the Qadaa, you can easily use the weekends or Mondays and Thursdays or the days off from work to go through the fast and not push your body to the limits.
One of the Issues that raises controversy is the ruling on one who missed a number of days or the entire month of the last Ramadan and didn't make up those days until the next Ramadan starts.
Our great scholars have unanimously agreed that if it was due to a valid reason like illness or childbirth, then there is no sin involved. What is needed in this situation is observe the current Ramadan without the compulsion of feeding a poor person (Fidyah).
They however, disagreed regarding the person who falls into this situation without a valid reason. And there are two scholarly views:
View #1: The vast majority of our great Imams ( Malik, al-Shafโi and Ahmad) are of the view that delaying the making up of missed days until the next Ramadan starts without a valid reason is a sinful act. ( See Az-Zawaajir โan Iqtiraaf Al-Kabaaโir, authored by Ibn Hajar Al-Haytami, the 142nd major sin in Islam. They also maintain that the person involved in such an act will have to firstly observe the current Ramadan along with Fidyah ( a compulsory feeding of a poor person for the amount of days that were missed) in addition with the making up of those days after Ramadan. They rely upon the reports narrated from some of the Sahabah such as Abu Hurairah and Ibn โAbbas.
View #2: Some scholars are of the view that delaying the making up of missed days until the next Ramadan starts without a valid reason is not a sinful act and that there is no need for Fidyah. The most famous imam bearing this view is Imam Abu Hanifah. He argued that the fact that Allah commands the one who misses some days of fasting in Ramadan only to make up the missed fasts , and He did not mention feeding a poor person.(See Surah al-Baqarah, Chapter 2: Verse 185] (Also see al-Majmuโ, & 6/366; al-Mughni, 4/400).
My own take:
As a student, I believe that hastening to complete the missed days before the next Ramadan is recommended and delaying it may not be sinful but it is Makrooh or disliked.
May Allah SWT make us amongst those who will pay all of their debt before the next Ramadan.
