How to Repent and Fulfill Kaffara for Intercourse in Ramadan?

Answered by Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat

Question

During the early years of our marriage, there were a couple of days when my husband and I had intercourse on the days of Ramadan during the day. We were unaware whether our fasts were broken during foreplay, but we used to complete with intercourse.

How can we repent and fulfill the kaffara of 60 days of fasting for intercourse during Ramadan?

Is it acceptable to follow the Maliki school by feeding people as a form of paying kaffara?

Answer

According to the Hanafi school, performing one kaffara (60 days of fasting) is the easiest solution. This will take care of all of the incidents. If your husband cannot, due to physical illness, he can feed people. Otherwise, if he just feels like he will struggle to maintain the limits of the fast, then he should do it in the winter. The days are much shorter, thus making the fasts a lot easier. [Shurunbulali, Maraqi al-Falah]

Maliki Dispensation

You can, however, choose to follow the Maliki school for the kaffara. They consider feeding people to the best of the forms of kaffara due to the wide benefit that comes from it. [al-Mawsu‘a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya]

Choose What Will Help You Stop

The best option for you would be the 60 fasts in winter. The purpose of the kaffara is to teach one a lesson, and if you can easily pay to feel that many people for every occasion, then it won’t have that effect. Fasting will drive the point home, insha’Allah, and prevent it from happening. In any case, it’s in your hands.

Be sure to repent to Allah, express your human weakness, and ask Allah to strengthen you to be able to worship Him to the best of your capacity.

In any case, Allah loves it when a servant repents and turns back to Him, and He loves those who repeatedly repent. He (Most High) says,

”Surely Allah loves those who always turn to Him in repentance and those who purify themselves.” [Quran, 2:222]

May Allah make us of them. Amin.
[Shaykh] Abdul-Rahim Reasat
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat began his studies in Arabic Grammar and Morphology in 2005. After graduating with a degree in English and History, he moved to Damascus in 2007, where, for 18 months, he studied with many erudite scholars. In late 2008, he moved to Amman, Jordan, where he continued his studies for the next six years in Sacred Law (fiqh), legal theory (Usul al-fiqh), theology, hadith methodology, hadith commentary, and Logic. He was also given licenses of mastery in the science of Quranic recital, and he was able to study an extensive curriculum of Quranic sciences, tafsir, Arabic grammar, and Arabic eloquence.