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It depends

When do I make up a fast, and when do I feed a poor person instead?

You make it up when the cause was temporary — passing illness, travel, menstruation: you recover the days when you can. You feed when the cause is permanent: chronic illness with no expected improvement, or old age, and then there is no make-up. Pregnancy and nursing fall between the two and are the subject of real disagreement.

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

The long answer

There are two distinct mechanisms, and confusing them is what makes this question seem harder than it is.

Making up (qadā’): fasting the lost days again. This applies when the impediment was temporary.

  • Illness you recover from.
  • Travel.
  • Menstruation and post-natal bleeding.

Feeding (fidya): giving food to a poor person for each day. This applies when the impediment is permanent and is not expected to lift.

  • Chronic illness with no foreseeable improvement.
  • Old age that makes fasting unfeasible.

In that second case the days are not made up: the fidya replaces them, it is not added to them.

The verse in which both mechanisms appear: “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)

The intermediate cases, which is where the disagreement lives:

  • Pregnancy and nursing: some require only the make-up; some the make-up and fidya; some only fidya if she stopped for the baby's sake.
  • Unjustified delay past the next Ramadan: the majority add fidya to the make-up; others do not.

What your answer depends on: whether the cause was temporary or permanent, exactly which it was, how long has passed, and which school you follow.

A practical note on fidya: it consists of feeding one person in need for each day, and in most countries is reckoned by the local cost of a meal. It is not a fine; it is the way the law provided for someone who cannot fulfil the obligation otherwise.

What it rests on