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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.

Written by DeenDrops · · How the answers are written

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