What Should Do About Missed Days of Fast Due to Dialysis?

Answered by Ustadh Tabraze Azam

Question: Assalam alaykum

I have been diagnosed with ESRD. I was extremely sick last year and did not fast. I paid the fidyah for all my missed fasts of the past. This year I feel much better. I can only fast on my off days from dialysis. After Ramadan do I have to make up all fasts that I will miss because of dialysis? Will I have to make up all of last years fast for which I paid the fidyah?

Answer: Wa alaikum assalam wa rahmatullah,

I pray that this message finds you well, insha’Allah. May Allah Most High grant you a complete recovery by His Infinite Grace.

According to the Hanafi School, expiatory payments (fidya) are not due nor valid except in the case of established chronic inability to fast that will last until death.

Further, if you made the payments after validly meeting the criteria, yet subsequently gained the ability and strength to fast, you would need to make those missed fasts up (qada’).

However, this wouldn’t negate the reward of having made the payments out of worship and sincerity. Allah Most High says that He “never wastes the reward of those who do good.” [9:120]

As for intravenous medication (IV), it doesn’t affect the validity of the fast as the skin pores aren’t a legally valid point of entry. Hence, you you can fast on your dialysis days too.

[ShaykhiZada, Majma‘ al-Anhur Sharh Multaqa al-Abhur]

Please also see: Brief Overview of Expiatory Payments (fidya) and: Making Up for Fasts Missed Due to Illness and Menstruation and: Too Sick to Fast in Ramadan, Too Poor to Pay the Expiatory Payment (Fidya)

And Allah Most High alone knows best.

wassalam,
[Ustadh] Tabraze Azam

Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Ustadh Tabraze Azam holds a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Leicester, where he also served as the President of the Islamic Society. He memorised the entire Qur’an in his hometown of Ipswich at the tender age of sixteen, and has since studied the Islamic Sciences in traditional settings in the UK, Jordan and Turkey. He is currently pursuing advanced studies in Jordan, where he is presently based with his family.