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Is it permissible to vary the food given for an expiatory oath (kaffarat al-yameen), offering different types such as flour, semolina, rice, milk, oil, and vegetables, or must one be restricted to only wheat or rice and flour?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

It is permissible to combine different types of food when feeding the poor as expiation, so some needy individuals can be fed one type of food and others a different type. This is the view of the majority of scholars. As for the types of food that are sufficient for expiation, jurists have differed on this matter. Some have restricted it to wheat, barley, dates, and raisins, while others have stipulated that it must be from the staple food of the region. Still others have given a choice among the staple foods of the region. However, they all agree that milk, oil, and vegetables are not sufficient to be given as expiation for an oath.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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