Fidyah- Kaffarah

Fidyah and Kaffara are donations made when a fast is missed or broken during Ramadan.

Fidyah applies When you cannot fast during Ramadan and have a valid reason for doing so. If you can’t make up the lost days afterwards or you can’t fast at all (for example, because of ill health or pregnancy), then you need to pay Fidyah for the poor to be fed twice a day for every day that you couldn’t fast yourself. The Fidyah amount is approximately $10 per day.

Kaffarah

If you deliberately miss or break any fasts during the month of Ramadan without a valid excuse, you must pay Kaffarah as compensation.

When literally translated from Arabic, Kaffarah is a general term which means “what is paid to redress an imbalance or to compensate for commissioning a sinful act, i.e. a kind of punishment or penalty”.

When fast is broken deliberately with no excuse there are three possible things a Muslim can do to pay their Kaffarah these are

Free a Muslim locked in the bonds of slavery

Fast for two consecutive months

Pay to feed sixty people a day at a cost of approx. $10 AUD x 60 = $600.