Sometimes, we are compelled to break our 30-day fast for various reasons, such as illness, travel or even forgetfulness.
Read on to learn about exemptions from fasting and how fidya and kaffarah tie in with them:
What are the Valid Exemptions from Fasting?
In short, there are 5 major categories of exemptions from fasting in Ramadan:
Illness
Travel
Age
Hazardous Thirst or Hunger
Coercion
The majority of these categories concern the preservation of one’s health, with the exception of the 5th category, coercion, which is also the rarest. Islam prioritizes the balanced wellbeing of the individual and these exemptions can be used throughout the month of Ramadan as needed.
Those who break their fast due to the reasons mentioned above are required to pay fidya (with the exception of illness and travel), while those who break their fast for other reasons are required to pay kaffarah.
What is Fidya?
Fidya is the amount of wealth one offers for each day of Ramadan fasting that he or she has missed for a reason from the 5 valid categories mentioned above.
Fidya is paid to those in need and provides enough food to suffice 1 person for an entire day.
In Islamic tradition, the Prophet Muhammad, on him be peace, established the rate of fidya as a half sa’ - or two double handfuls - of foodstuff per days missed. In today’s calculations, a half sa’ is equivalent to roughly 1 kg or 2.5 lbs of food and the amount to provide this amount of food would be roughly $10 USD. Calculating one’s fidya would thus be:
One-Half Sa‘ (or $10) x Days Missed = Total Fidya Payment
What is Kaffarah?
Kaffarah is wealth paid for deliberately breaking a fasting day in Ramadan, i.e. through eating, drinking or engaging in sexual intercourse, without a valid reason.
As with fidya, each day of fasting missed requires its own kaffarah payment, with the 3 common forms of penance being:
Freeing a Muslim from slavery
Feeding a specified number of the poor (typically 60 people)
Fasting for a specified number of days
For those inclined towards feeding the poor for their penance, feeding 60 people for one day would come at a rate of about $10 USD per person and the calculation for one’s kaffarah would look like this:
$600 x Days Missed = Total Kaffarah Payment
Being knowledgeable about the details of our faith is essential to our practice as Muslims, especially during Ramadan. While fidya is paid by one who is unable to fast due to valid reasons, kaffarah is paid by one who breaks their fast without a valid reason.