Jurisprudence

Fatwās of the Grand Ayatollah Khamenei (d.)

1- A person for whom it is obligatory to perform the kaffārah of Ramadan’s fasting should free a slave, fast for 60 days, feed 60 needy persons to satisfaction or give each of them one mudd (about 750 gm.) of food (i.e. wheat, barley or the like). If one cannot do so, they must give as many mudds as they can to the poor and if they cannot do that either, they should ask Allah for forgiveness even by saying استغفرالله [Oh Allah! Forgive me] only once. However, in the last case, it is an obligatory caution that whenever observing kaffārah becomes possible, one should do it.

1- As to the kaffārah of deliberately breaking fasting of Ramadan, if one can neither fast 60 days nor feed 60 needy persons, they must give food to as many poor people as they can and, by caution, ask Allah for forgiveness as well. If they cannot feed even one person, it suffices to ask Allah for forgiveness, i.e. to say with their heart and tongue 'Oh Allah! Forgive me.' If a person, whose only duty is asking forgiveness due to inability to fast and to feed the poor, becomes able of that later on, it is not necessary that this person gives the kaffārah, even though it is a mustaḥabb caution to do so.

2- If one breaks one’s fasting with a ḥarām practice — be it ḥarām by itself like drinking alcohol and fornication or becomes incidentally ḥarām like doing sexual intercourse with one’s wife while in the period, the multiple kaffārah is, by caution, obligatory for them, i.e. they should free a slave, fast for two months, feed 60 needy person to satisfaction or give each of them one mudd (about 750 gm.) food (wheat, barley, bread, or the like). If it is not possible for them to perform all the three kaffārahs, they should observe the possible one/s.

2- If a person breaks fasting of Ramadan by a ḥarām sexual intercourse or eating/drinking a ḥarām thing, all the three kaffārahs (freeing a slave, fasting for 60 days and feeding 60 needy persons) are, by caution, obligatory for them. If it is impossible for them to perform all the three, they should observe the possible one/s. Anyhow, it is not remote that this caution is not obligatory.

3- If a fasting person does sexual intercourse several times during one day in Ramadan, one kaffārah is obligatory for him/her but if it is a ḥarām intercourse, he/she should observe a multiple kaffārah. However, if a fasting person invalidates his/her fasting several times during one day in Ramadan with an act other than sexual intercourse, one kaffārah is enough for all.

3- If a fasting person performs an act that invalidates fasting for several times during one day in Ramadan, only one kaffārah is obligatory for him. However, if this act is a sexual intercourse or masturbation, it is an obligatory caution that he/she observes as many kaffārahs as that of sexual intercourses or masturbations.

4- If somebody deliberately invalidates his/her fasting and makes a travel after 'noon' or even before 'noon' to escape kaffārah, kaffārah is still obligatory for him/her. Moreover, if he/she is incidentally compelled to travel before 'noon', kaffārah is, by caution, obligatory, as well.

4- If a person deliberately breaks his/her fasting and he/she goes after that for a travel, kaffārah is still obligatory for him/her.

5- A person who did not fast for several days for an excuse but he/she doubts as to when this excuse was removed, he/she can make up for the minimum. For example, if one was in travel and he/she does not know whether he/she returned on 5th or 6th of Ramadan, he/she may fast only five days. The same rule applies for that who does not know when his/her excuse started, e.g. if he/she went for a travel during the last 3rd of Ramadan and returned after it but doubts if he/she had traveled on 25th or 26th of Ramadan, he/she is allowed to make up for the minimum, i.e., five days.

5- A person who did not fast for several days during Ramadan due to an excuse and he/she does not know how many days they were, e.g. one does not know whether he/she had traveled on 25th or 26th of Ramadan that is whether he/she missed six or five fasts, he/she can make up for the minimum. But, if one knows the date the excuse started, e.g. he/she is sure that he/she had traveled on 5th of Ramadan but doubts as to whether the return was at the night before 10th, i.e. one owes only five fasts or at the night before 11th, i.e. he/she owes six fasts, one should by caution, make up for six fasts.

6- If a person who, due to lack of knowledge about the ruling, does something that renders his/her fasting void, was able to learn the ruling, it is, by obligatory caution, incumbent upon him/her to pay kaffārah, but if this person was not able to learn the ruling, had no idea about it, or was certain that doing such and such does not invalidate fasting, then it is not incumbent upon him/her to pay kaffārah.

6- If one, due to lack of knowledge about Islamic law, does something that renders one’s fasting invalid, for example if one takes an oral medicine on the day during Ramadan not knowing that it renders fasting invalid like other foods, one’s fasting is ruled void and it is incumbent upon such a person to make it up, but it is not incumbent upon him/her to pay kaffārah.