Fidyah
*Fidyah* is a ransom-payment, usually feeding a person in need, given in place of worship they can never do.
What it means for me: Fidyah is the door for someone whose path is genuinely closed: chronic illness, old age, a condition that will not lift. This is why a mufti asks whether the inability is lasting or temporary. A temporary case usually points toward qada instead, not fidyah.
Example: A son asks about his elderly father, who cannot fast and is not expected to recover the ability. The answer names fidyah, and sets out the amount as the source reports it from scholars.
Do not confuse with: *Kaffarah*. Fidyah stands in for worship a person cannot do at all; kaffarah corrects a violation the person caused.
If scholars differ: Some scholars set fidyah as a fixed amount of food; others allow its cash value instead. They also differ on whether it applies to pregnant or nursing women, and to those who delayed qada without excuse. The difference is named here as a difference and not decided; the mufti is the reference.
Often appears in
See the term in context
Is it permissible for one who is unable to fast Ramadan due to a chronic illness to pay the Fidyah before the month begins? Is it permissible to give the Fidyah for a whole month to a single poor person? Is it a condition to pay the Fidyah daily, or can it be paid all at once?
It is not permissible to hasten the expiatory payment (fidyah) for breaking the fast in Ramadan for a sick person whose recovery is not hoped for. Rather, the fidyah for each day should be given after its dawn breaks,…
- What is the ruling on forgetting to fast a day from the previous Ramadan, and can the matter be rectified? - What is the ruling on a woman who broke her fast in Ramadan after intending to fast, due to her husband having intercourse with her while she was willing, and does she have to make up for two months of fasting? - Is it obligatory to give the fidyah for a new-born in Ramadan in the country where the Muslim lives or in his original homeland? - What is the ruling on someone who did not fast Ramadan in 2010 and paid fidyah for it in 2011, and has not yet fasted it in 2012 due to health conditions, and is he required to pay a new fidyah?
Days of Ramadan that are owed must be made up. Along with making them up, it is obligatory to feed one indigent person for each day of delay if the makeup is delayed until the entry of the subsequent Ramadan without a…
Is it sufficient, according to the Shafi'i school, for someone who has broken their fast in Ramadan for years without a valid excuse to only offer fidyah? And what is the difference between fidyah and kaffarah?
The Shafi’is hold that delaying the make-up of Ramadan fasts without a valid excuse does not negate their obligation. Whoever delays the make-up without an excuse until the next Ramadan begins must feed a needy person…
Questions that use it
What should a person do who shaved their head before performing 'Umrah or Hajj, then completed the Sa'i (ritual circumambulation between Safa and Marwa) but their hair had not yet grown back? Does the ruling for the sick or those with an ailment in their head apply to them? And what is the specified amount of the fidyah (expiation) mentioned in the verse: "And whoever among you is ill or has an ailment of the head, then a fidyah of fasting or charity or sacrifice"? What is the intended meaning of "sacrifice" (nusuk) in this context?
What is the ruling on masturbating twice after the first partial release from Ihram in Hajj, and is one fidyah sufficient for that, and is the Hajj valid?
Do I have to make up the days I missed in the last Ramadan due to pregnancy and fear for the fetus, knowing that I paid the Fidyah and did not make them up, and how do I make them up after another Ramadan has passed?