Fidyah & Kaffarah for Missed Fasts - Amounts and Rules

1. 1Classify your case: temporary (make up fasts) or permanent (fidyah) or violation (kaffarah).
2. 2Use our fidyah/kaffarah calculators for the exact food weight and cost.
3. 3Pay to the poor directly or a trusted charity that delivers food/cash.
4. 4Make up ordinary missed fasts as well - fidyah covers only the unmakeable.

Fidyah: who pays and how much

Fidyah covers the elderly who cannot fast, the chronically ill with no hope of recovery, and (in many schools) pregnant/nursing women who fear for the child - one poor person fed per missed day, roughly half a sa’ of staple food (about 1.5kg wheat/rice) or its cash value. Our fidyah calculator converts days to food and local cost.

Pay during Ramadan or after, day by day or lumped at the end - before next Ramadan is best. The recipient must be poor; giving it to a masjid fund is valid only if it reaches the poor as food or cash.

Kaffarah: the three levels

Kaffarah applies to deliberate intercourse in Ramadan daytime and broken solemn oaths: (1) free a slave, (2) else fast 60 consecutive days (oath: 3 days), (3) else feed 60 poor (oath: 10). The order is fixed - you may not jump to feeding while able to fast. Our kaffarah calculator works out the feeding cost.

Fidyah and kaffarah never go to parents, children or spouses; the deserving poor around you come first. Keep receipts and intention records - these are acts of worship, not bills.