THE FAST OF THE TERMINALLY ILL PERSON Q6: What is legislated for the sick person who has no hope of recovery and cannot fast during Ramadān? Ans: He should feed one poor person for each day in Ramadān. The sick person who has no hope of recovery and cannot fast during Ramadān has to feed one poor person for each day that he did not fast because ALLĀH says: وَعَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ يُطِيقُونَهُۥ فِدۡيَةٌ طَعَامُ مِسۡكِينٍۖ For those who can only fast with extreme difficulty, compensation can be made by feeding a needy person ˹for every day not fasted˺. {Al-Baqarah || Verse 184} Ibn 'Abbas (may ALLĀH be pleased with them) said: "This refers to the old man or old woman who cannot fast, so for each day they should feed one poor person." {Al-Bukhari #4505}. The sick person who has no hope of recovery comes under the same ruling as the elderly. Ibn Qudāmah (may ALLĀH have mercy on him) said: "The sick person who has no hope of recovery should not fast, and for each day he should feed one poor person, because he is like one who is elderly." {Al-Mughni, 4/396} Sheikh Ibn 'Uthaymīn (may ALLĀH have mercy on him) was asked: If a person recovers from a sickness that the doctors previously stated it was impossible to recover from, and that is after several days of Ramadān have passed, is he required to make up the previous days? He replied: "If a person does not fast in Ramadān because of sickness for which there is no hope of recovery, either because this is the usual pattern with that sickness or because trustworthy doctors have stated that, then he has to feed one poor person for each day. If he does that, then ALLĀH decrees that he should be healed after that, he does not have to make up the fasts for which he fed the poor, because his duty was discharged when he fed poor persons instead of fasting. If his duty has been discharged, then it is not followed by another obligation. This is like what the fuqaha' (may ALLĀH have mercy on them) mentioned about a man who is unable to perform the duty of Hajj because of a reason for which there is no hope that it will end, and someone does Hajj on his behalf, then he recovers after that: he does not have to do the obligatory Hajj again." {Majmu' Fatāwa al-Sheikh Ibn ‘Uthaymīn, 19/126} And ALLĀH knows best. @alBaseeroh AD DA'WATUL ISLAMIYYAH CHANNEL https://chat.whatsapp.com/JsIL1BTUUgXLoSz4YdcG9q