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Is it permissible to pay the expiation for an oath (kaffarat al-yameen) in cash to a food bank project, equivalent to feeding ten needy persons, given that the money may not be used directly to purchase food?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Whoever is obligated to pay expiation must feed ten poor persons, or pay them the value of the food if that is more beneficial. It is permissible to appoint someone to do this, such as a food bank, if it is trustworthy and pays the expiation to the poor. It is not permissible to use the expiation for transporting or packaging food because the verse explicitly states "feeding," and this might reduce the amount due to the poor person.

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

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