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Islam and Spiritualism ( 3 Apr 2023, NewAgeIslam.Com)

Thirty Lessons of Ramadan: Twelfth Lesson on Rulings Related to Qazaa, Kaffarah and Fidyah – Part 12

By Mufti Abdul Malik Misbahi, New Age Islam

Translated into English by Ghulam Ghaus Siddiqi, New Age Islam

3 April 2023

There are some conditions in which keeping the fast after Ramadan is required to make up for the broken fast and it is also compulsory to pay Kaffarah [expiation or atonement].

If a sane, adolescent [Baligh], resident [Muqeem i.e. non-traveller] Muslim intentionally breaks his Ramadan fast without a legitimate reason [Uzr] acceptable in Sharia, then both the Qazaa and expiation [Kaffarah] of that fast are compulsory on him.

The Qazaa and Kaffarah both become compulsory when one intentionally breaks their fast by doing any of the following: eating, drinking, engaging in sexual activity, smoking a cigarette or Hookah [or Huqqah in Urdu]

Being overcome by emotions, if a person engages in sexual activity while fasting, regardless of gender, or if a male engages in sodomy, both Qaza and Kaffarah are required.

The fast is broken and the Qazaa and Kaffarah are both required if someone has consumed something that is meant to be ingested as food or liquid or something that is not intended for consumption as food or liquid but is consumed as a medicine benefitting him.

Even in such a circumstance, the Qazaa and Kaffarah are required if the conduct in question did not truly break the fast, but the fasting individual mistakenly assumed that it had after which he purposefully ate and drank.

For instance, if someone used Surmah in their eyes or kissed a woman without having ejaculated, but the person who was fasting mistakenly assumed that his fast had been broken, even though the fast had not been broken, and he deliberately ate or drank thereafter, then the Qazaa and Kaffarah are both required in this situation.

In the circumstances where Kaffarah becomes necessary after breaking the fast, the condition is that one must have made the intention for the fast of Ramadan before the true dawn.

Only [breaking] those Ramadan fasts for which a person set their intention [Niyyat] before the true dawn, that is, during the night, require Kaffarah; if they set their intention during the daytime, that is, after the true dawn, only the Qazaa of that fast is required of him and Kaffarah is not.

Kaffarah must meet certain stipulations in order to be deemed mandatory, such that after breaking the fast no action took place that would be contrary to fasting [such as Haidh or Nifaas etc.] or that no action has been discovered that would give someone permission to break the fast as a result of a valid reason permitted by Shariah [such an illness which exempts one from fasting]. An example of this would be if the menstruation [Haidh] of a woman [who has broken her fast after keeping it on a day] comes or her post-natal bleeding [Nifaas] begins on the same day, the Kaffarah is not required; just the Qazaa is, as Haiz and Nifaas excuse her from fasting. Another example of this is if someone breaks their fast on a certain day and then experiences an illness that exempts them from fasting on that same day, then the Kaffarah is not necessary. Only the Qazaa is required in this situation. Travelling won't cause Kaffarah to lapse [from the responsibility of the traveller] because it is a voluntary Uzr [Ikhtiyaari Uzr], meaning it is something which is under the control of the traveller.

Breaking the fast after keeping it without a legitimate justification endorsed by Shariah is a grave sin. Certainly, it is entirely permissible—indeed, required—to break the fast if the person who is fasting becomes so critically ill that, if he does not, there is a strong possibility that he will die or that his condition will worsen, or if he is so hungry or thirsty that doing so puts his life in jeopardy. After achieving health, only the Qazaa for that fast is then necessary.

There are three methods to atone [Kaffarah] for intentionally breaking the fast: observing sixty consecutive fasts, freeing one slave or handmaiden, or feeding sixty needy people twice a day.

If the Kaffarah is to be performed through fasting, then sixty fasts must be observed continuously, without interruption. If even one fast is missed in the interim, sixty fasts must be kept again. Certainly, the number of fasts missed during the days of a woman's menstruation will not break the cycle from continuing. But he must continue to complete sixty fasts by combining the fasts that she kept before and after her menstruation. The Kaffarah will be acceptable in this situation.

If the Nifaas period falls during the Kaffarah fast, the Kaffarah fast will terminate, and she will have to restart fasting for two more months.

If Ramadan occurs during the Kaffarah fasts, Kaffarah will come to an end and need to be renewed. If more than one fast has been broken during the same Ramadan and the previous Kaffarah has not been completed, one Kaffarah will be sufficient.

(Continued)

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Mufti Abdul Malik Misbahi is the author of multiple books. He has also lectured and held positions such as Mufti, Shaykhul Hadith, president, founder, and director at a number of institutions, including Darul Uloom Ghousia in Hubli, Karnataka, and Darul Uoom Solemaniya Rahmaniya in Bikaner Darul Uloom Reza-e-Mustafa, Bihar, Madrasa Shah Khalid, Vanwa Libo Muslim League, Fiji (near Australia), Madina Educational Society, Rajasthan. He currently holds the positions of Mufti in the Sunni Darul Ifta in the Madina Masjid, General Secretary of the Raza Foundation, Director of the Darain Academy, Founder of the Afkar-e- Raza Institution, and Chief Editor of the Do-Maahi Raza-e-Madina (Urdu, Hindi) in Azadnagar, Jamshedpur, Jharkhand.