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It depends

I went years without fasting Ramadan. Where do I start?

With repentance, and with fasting the coming Ramadan — that part admits of no dispute. On the past years scholars differ: some require making every one of them up, others hold that a fast deliberately abandoned cannot be made up and that what is asked is repentance and consistency from now on. Which applies to you depends on why you did not fast.

The honest answer turns on your circumstances. What it hinges on is below.

The long answer

This question nearly always arrives with a figure in mind and the feeling that the debt is unpayable. It helps to separate its parts.

What is not disputed. Repentance wipes out what came before it, with no exceptions carved out for particular sins: “Say, "O My servants who have transgressed against themselves by sinning, do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He who is the Forgiving, the Merciful."” (Qur’an 39:53)

And the coming Ramadan is fasted. That is first and depends on no ruling.

What is disputed, where the years were left knowingly:

  • One position: the debt stands and every day must be made up, gradually, for however long it takes.
  • Another: a fast deliberately abandoned outside its time is not recovered by repeating it later, because its time was part of the obligation. What is asked is sincere repentance, consistency from now on, and increasing voluntary fasts.

If you did not fast out of ignorance — you did not know it was obligatory, nobody taught you, you were not practising — most scholars treat those years far more leniently, and for many there is no make-up at all.

The verse on making up, for the cases where it applies: “Fasting for a limited number of days. So whoever among you is ill or on a journey during them - then an equal number of other days are to be made up. And upon those who are able to fast, but with hardship - a ransom as substitute of feeding a poor person each day. And whoever volunteers good i.e., excess - it is better for him. But to fast is best for you, if you only knew.” (Qur’an 2:184)

What your answer depends on: whether you knew it was obligatory, how many years it was, your health, and which school you follow.

What can be said generally, and is the most useful part: start with the coming Ramadan and with repentance. Do not let the size of the backlog be the reason you never start; that is exactly the mistake that turns a settleable debt into a reason not to come back.

What it rests on