Question:
Assalamu Alaikum,
I would like to make my intention to do Kaffarah, however I want to make sure that I have all the correct information with respect to the number of days, what should be done at the time of haidh and any other relevant information.
Any information that you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Kind Regards
Answer:
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Kaffarah is a penalty of fasting sixty consecutive days, as an atonement for the deliberate invalidation of a fast of Ramadhan without a valid Shari’i reason. One Kaffarah (60 days) will suffice for all the fast that was deliberately broken. In addition to the Kaffarah, Qadha (a make up fast) is also necessary for each fast that was broken.
Kafarah will only be necessary in the following situations:
- Eating/drinking deliberately while one is aware that he/she is fasting in Ramadhan.
- Intercourse while fasting. (just mere penetration, even if emission of fluids did not occur). Kaffarah will be compulsory upon both husband and wife.
- The emission for seminal fluids due to sexual intimacy other than intercourse does not necessitate Kaffarah.
- A person having intercourse assuming that it is still night, suddenly becomes aware that the break of dawn has entered he must withdraw immediately. However, Qadha will still be necessary. If however he continues then Kaffarah will also be necessary (whether or not seminal fluid was discharged).
The necessity of Kaffarah is understood from the Hadith in which Abu Hurairah (radiyallahu’anhu) says: That there was a Sahabi who had violated his fast by having intercourse with his wife. Rasulullah (ﷺ) instructed him to make up by doing the Kaffarah, by either freeing a slave, or fasting for 2 consecutive months or by feeding 60 needy people. (Sahih alBukhari)
As freeing a slave no longer exists, Kaffarah will have to be done by fasting 60 days without a break in between. If the sixty days of fast are not kept consecutively, a person will have to start all over again.
Only in a case only where a person is incapable of keeping sixty consecutive days of fast due to an illness or old age, one may feed sixty poor people two meals for a day, or give it’s equivalent in money to the needy.
And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best
Mufti Arshad Ali
Darul Iftaa, Jaamia Madinatul Uloom (Trinidad)
