Do Both Parties Have to Pay the Expiatory Payment for Nullifying a Fast?

Answered by Ustadha Shazia Ahmad

Question

Can you explain the expiatory payments (fidya) in shafi’i fiqh? Do you both have to pay fidya and make up the fast for previous years? Or do you only pay fidya?

What do you do when you don’t remember the days you missed in previous years, about 6 and 7 years ago?

Answer

May Allah reward you for being vigilant about repentance and for choosing Allah’s pleasure first.

Fidya

In the Reliance of the Traveller, it says,

The Expiation For Vitiating a Fast-Day by Sexual Intercourse

i1.20 In addition to making up the fast, an expiation is obligatory for fast days of Ramadan that are (A: deliberately) vitiated by sexual intercourse. (O: The legal occasion of the offense is the particular day of fasting, so if it were committed on two separate days, two separate expiations would be necessary, though if it were committed twice in one day, there would be only one expiation.)

The expiation consists of freeing a sound Muslim slave (dis: k32), or if not possible, to fast the days for two consecutive months. (A: In our school, the expiation is only for sexual intercourse, though the Hanafis hold it is obligatory for vitiating the fast for other reasons.) If this is not possible, then the expiation is to feed sixty unfortunates (N: 0.51 liters of food (def: h7.6 (A:) to each unfortunate). If one cannot do this, the expiation remains an unperformed obligation upon the person concerned.

The woman who is made love to is not obliged to expiate it. [p. 286]

For previously missed prayers, one should estimate the number of fasts missed, overestimate a little, and make them up as soon as possible.

Please see the expiation in the Hanafi school and other details below:
The Expiation (Kaffara) for Having Sex While Fasting
The Fiqh of Fasting Ramadan According to the School of Imam Shafi’i
How Do I Make Up Fasting Days I Missed Due to Various Reasons?
Valid Makeup Fasts
How to Make up Years of Missed Prayers? (Shafi’i)

May Allah give you the best of this world and the next.

[Ustadha] Shazia Ahmad
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Ustadha Shazia Ahmad lived in Damascus, Syria for two years where she studied aqida, fiqh, tajweed, tafsir, and Arabic. She then attended the University of Texas at Austin, where she completed her Masters in Arabic. Afterward, she moved to Amman, Jordan where she studied fiqh, Arabic, and other sciences. She later moved back to Mississauga, Canada, where she lives with her family.