Roza Fidya: How Much to Pay for Missed Fasts and Who Pays It

Every Ramadan families ask the same question about an elderly parent or a relative with a long illness: they cannot fast, so what do they owe? The answer is fidya, a small payment of food or its value for each fast, given to the poor. It is simple to work out, but it is often paid by the wrong people or at the wrong rate. This guide explains who may pay it, how much it is in each school, how to turn it into rupees, and the mistakes to avoid. To skip straight to the numbers, use the fidya and kaffara calculator.

What fidya is

Fidya means a ransom or compensation. In fasting it is the food (or its value) given to a poor person in place of a fast that a person cannot keep and will never be able to make up. The basis is the Quran:

“…And for those who can fast only with great difficulty, a ransom: feeding a poor person. Whoever does more good voluntarily, it is better for him. And fasting is better for you, if only you knew.” (Surah al-Baqarah 2:184)

Ibn Abbas explained that this verse remains in force for the very old man and woman who cannot fast: they feed one poor person for each day (Sahih al-Bukhari, Book of Tafsir, on 2:184). The verse before it, and 2:185, also make clear that a sick person or a traveller makes up the days later. That is the whole structure of the law in two lines: a temporary excuse means you fast later (qada); a permanent one means you pay fidya.

Fidya is different from kaffara. Kaffara is the heavier penalty for breaking a Ramadan fast on purpose without an excuse, and it is covered in our guide to kaffara for breaking a fast. Fidya is not a punishment at all. It is a mercy for people who genuinely cannot fast.

Who may pay fidya instead of fasting

All four Sunni schools agree that fidya is for a person who cannot fast now and has no realistic hope of being able to fast later. In practice this means:

• Old age (shaikh fani): an elderly man or woman for whom fasting causes real harm or unbearable hardship, and whose strength will not return.
• A chronic illness with no hope of recovery: for example advanced kidney disease needing frequent fluids, some types of diabetes where a doctor says fasting is dangerous, or a long-term condition requiring medicine through the day. The judgement should come from a trustworthy Muslim doctor, or at least an honest doctor who understands what a fast involves.

Such a person does not fast, pays one fidya for each day of Ramadan they miss, and carries no sin. If the person can fast some days, for instance in the short days of winter qada, they should fast those days and pay fidya only for the rest.

One school differs on whether it is obligatory. In the Maliki school, an elderly person who cannot fast is not required to pay fidya, though giving it is recommended. The Hanafi, Shafi’i and Hanbali schools make it obligatory if the person can afford it.

Who may not pay fidya instead of fasting

This is where most mistakes happen. The following people have a valid reason not to fast, but their reason is temporary, so they must make up the fasts after Ramadan. Paying money does not replace their fasts.

• A traveller (musafir): may leave the fast on a journey and makes it up later.
• A temporary illness: fever, an operation, a broken bone, a course of antibiotics. Once well, the person makes up the days.
• Menstruation and post-natal bleeding: the days are made up later, with no fidya.
• Pregnancy and breastfeeding: the woman may leave the fast if she fears harm to herself or her baby. What she owes afterwards depends on the school, below.

Pregnant and breastfeeding women: the school views

• Hanafi: she makes up the fasts (qada) only, with no fidya, whether she feared for herself, for the child, or both. This is the position of al-Hidaya and the later Hanafi texts, and it is what most muftis in Pakistan follow.
• Shafi’i: if she feared for herself, or for herself and the child, qada only. If she feared only for the child, she makes up the fasts and also pays one mudd of fidya for each day.
• Hanbali: the same division as the Shafi’i school: qada only when she fears for herself; qada plus one mudd for each day when she fears only for the child.
• Maliki: a pregnant woman makes up the fasts only; a breastfeeding woman who fears for her child makes them up and also pays fidya.

So no school lets a healthy pregnant or nursing mother simply pay instead of fasting later. The question is only whether a fidya is added on top of the qada. If years of back-to-back pregnancies have left a woman with many fasts to make up, she still makes them up gradually; she does not convert them to money.

Delaying qada past the next Ramadan

Someone who could have made up last year’s fasts but let the next Ramadan arrive without doing so has a further question. In the Shafi’i, Maliki and Hanbali schools they make up the fasts and also pay one mudd for each day delayed. In the Hanafi school they make up the fasts only, with no fidya for the delay, though they should repent for the delay if it had no excuse.

How much fidya is for one fast

Hanafi

The fidya for one fast equals one sadaqat al-fitr (fitrana). You may give any one of these, or its value in money:

• half a sa’ of wheat or wheat flour, about 1.75 to 2 kg (the figure depends on how the sa’ is converted; 2 kg is the cautious round figure);
• one sa’ of barley, about 4 kg;
• one sa’ of dates, about 4 kg;
• one sa’ of raisins, about 4 kg.

Paying the value in money is allowed and is what nearly everyone does in Pakistan. Wheat gives the minimum. Scholars encourage those who can afford it to pay by dates or raisins, which come to several times more, because the reward follows what reaches the poor.

Shafi’i, Maliki and Hanbali

The fidya is one mudd of the main staple food of the place for each day, about 0.6 kg. In Pakistan the staple is wheat flour or rice; in the Gulf and Malaysia it is usually rice. Scholars of these schools generally prefer giving the food itself, although many contemporary bodies accept the value. One mudd is roughly a quarter of a sa’, so the amount is much smaller than the Hanafi one.

Shia (Ja’fari)

For readers who follow Ayatollah Sistani, his rulings set the fidya at one mudd, about 750 grams, of food such as wheat, barley or bread for each day. The difference from the 0.6 kg above is only in converting the mudd, a measure of volume, into weight; scholars’ estimates range from about 0.5 to 0.75 kg. The details on who pays it are in his Islamic Laws on sistani.org.

How to work out fidya in rupees

Do not rely on a figure from a forwarded message or last year’s poster. The amount changes with flour prices, and each city’s prices differ. Here is the method:

1. Find this year’s announced amount. Each Ramadan the Council of Islamic Ideology, the major madrasas and local mosque committees announce fitrana amounts for wheat, barley, dates and raisins. The Hanafi fidya for one fast is the same as one fitrana, so use that figure.
2. Choose the item. Wheat is the minimum; dates or raisins are better if you can afford them.
3. Count the fasts. Count only the fasts the person truly cannot make up. A full Ramadan is 29 or 30 days.
4. Multiply. Number of fasts times the amount for one fast. That is the whole sum.

For example, for Ramadan 1447 (February 2026) the Council of Islamic Ideology, Pakistan, gave a minimum of Rs 300 per person by wheat and Rs 1,600 by dates. At Rs 300, the fidya for 30 fasts is Rs 9,000. When the amounts for the coming Ramadan are announced, use those instead. Some charities quote a higher figure per fast (Alkhidmat, for example, gave Rs 600 in 2026). That is not a contradiction: Rs 300 is the CII’s minimum by wheat, and an organisation may base its figure on a better food or on local prices. Paying more is allowed; paying less than the minimum is not enough. If no amount has been announced where you live, use the local price of 2 kg of flour. For the Shafi’i, Maliki and Hanbali amount, use the price of about 0.6 kg of your staple food instead.

The fidya calculator does this multiplication for you: enter the number of fasts and the amount for one fast. The fitrana calculator uses the same per-person amounts, which helps if you are paying fitrana and fidya together before Eid.

Worked examples: 10, 30 and 60 fasts

The table uses the CII amounts for Ramadan 1447 (February 2026) for the Hanafi columns, and an example price for one mudd. Put the amounts for your year and city in their place.

Fasts	Hanafi, wheat (CII 1447: Rs 300 each)	Hanafi, dates (CII 1447: Rs 1,600 each)	Other schools, 1 mudd (example Rs 90 each)
10	Rs 3,000	Rs 16,000	Rs 900
30 (one Ramadan)	Rs 9,000	Rs 48,000	Rs 2,700
60 (two Ramadans)	Rs 18,000	Rs 96,000	Rs 5,400

Example 1: an elderly father

Haji Rasheed is 84 and his doctor has told him not to fast because of heart failure. He follows the Hanafi school. He pays one fidya for each of the 30 days. If his family uses the wheat amount, the total is 30 times the announced wheat figure. His son, who can afford more, chooses to pay by the dates rate on his father’s behalf, with his father’s permission.

Example 2: a mother who also missed fasts for pregnancy

Samina missed 12 fasts last Ramadan while pregnant, feared only for the baby, and follows the Shafi’i school. She must make up all 12 fasts after the birth and also pay 12 mudds of fidya. Had she been Hanafi, she would make up the 12 fasts with nothing to pay.

Example 3: a mix of days

Nasreen has a long-term kidney condition and cannot fast in summer, but her doctor allows short winter fasts. She missed 30 days. She makes up as many as she can in winter, say 10, and pays fidya only for the 20 she has no prospect of making up. If her health later allows the rest, she fasts those too.

When to pay, and to whom

In advance or after Ramadan

• Hanafi: the fidya may be paid at the start of Ramadan for the whole month, or day by day, or all together at the end or after Ramadan. Paying before Ramadan begins is not valid in advance for that Ramadan.
• Shafi’i: fidya may be given for each day on that day (including from the night before) or afterwards, but not for future days in advance. Paying for the whole month on the first night is therefore not valid for the later days.
• Hanbali and Maliki: scholars generally allow paying on each day or after; if you want to pay for the whole month at once, ask your scholar first.

Whatever the school, paying promptly is better than letting it slide. Poor families need food in Ramadan, and an elderly person’s health may not leave time for later.

One poor person or several

In the Hanafi school the fidya for many fasts may all be given to one poor person, and most Hanafi scholars also allow one fast’s fidya to be split among several. The Shafi’i school allows several mudds to go to one person, but one mudd should not be divided between two. Either way, the recipient must be someone eligible for zakat: poor or needy, not your own parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren or wife (a wife giving to a poor husband is disputed), and in the Sunni schools not a Sayyid. Our guide on who can receive zakat sets out the full list; fidya goes to the same poor and needy people.

As with zakat, the fidya should become the property of the poor person. Using it to build a mosque or pay a madrasa’s electricity bill does not fulfil it. A charity that distributes food or cash to needy families directly is fine.

Fidya for a deceased person

If someone dies with missed fasts, what is owed depends on whether they had a chance to make them up.

• No chance to make them up: if they were ill or travelling until death and never recovered, nothing is due, in any school.
• Could have made them up but did not (Hanafi): if they left a will (wasiyyat) asking for fidya, the heirs must pay it from up to one third of the estate. If there was no will, the heirs are not obliged, but adult heirs may pay it from their own money or their share, and we hope Allah accepts it. In the Hanafi view no one can fast on behalf of a dead person.
• Shafi’i: the fidya of one mudd per day is paid from the estate before inheritance is divided, whether or not there is a will. Following the hadith “Whoever dies owing fasts, his guardian fasts on his behalf” (Sahih al-Bukhari 1952, Sahih Muslim 1147), many Shafi’i scholars also allow a close relative to fast for the deceased instead.
• Hanbali: for missed Ramadan fasts, fidya is paid from the estate; the relative fasting on their behalf applies to vowed (nadhr) fasts.

Fidya for the dead uses the same rate and recipients as fidya for the living. Settle debts owed to people first, then the will; what remains is divided among the heirs, which the wirasat calculator works out by madhab.

What if the person recovers?

Fidya stands in for a fast only while there is no hope of fasting. If someone paid fidya believing their illness was permanent and later recovers enough to fast, the Hanafi ruling is clear: they must make up those fasts, and the fidya they paid counts as voluntary charity, with its reward. This applies to a person whose illness was misjudged as permanent, which happens more often than people expect after a successful operation or a change of medicine. The other schools discuss this case in more detail, especially for the very elderly; if it applies to you, ask a scholar of your school.

Common mistakes

• Paying fidya for a temporary excuse. A traveller, a student with exams, someone with a short illness or a pregnant woman must make up the fasts. Money does not replace them.
• Confusing fidya with kaffara. Fidya is one amount per fast for someone who cannot fast. Kaffara is for breaking a fast deliberately and is 60 days of fasting (or feeding 60 poor people if that is impossible). See kaffara for breaking a fast.
• Using an old rate. Last year’s figure is usually too low. Check this year’s announcement.
• Giving it to family you already support. Fidya cannot go to your parents, children or wife.
• Mixing schools to pay the least. Following the Hanafi rule on pregnancy (no fidya) but the Shafi’i amount (one mudd) for an elderly parent is picking and choosing. Follow one school’s package.
• Not counting accurately. Write down the number of fasts missed and why, so you know which are qada and which are fidya.
• Paying for the whole month on the first night in a school that does not allow it. Hanafis may; Shafi’is should pay day by day or after.

What to do now

1. Decide whether the excuse is permanent (fidya) or temporary (qada). If unsure, ask a doctor about the illness and a scholar about the ruling.
2. Count the fasts in each category.
3. Note this year’s announced fitrana amount for wheat, dates or the item you choose.
4. Work out the total in the fidya and kaffara calculator.
5. Give it to eligible poor people, directly or through a trustworthy charity, with the intention of fidya.

Frequently asked questions