Making up for missed fasts.
Q. I want to ask a question regarding qadhaa roza. What is the age when roza becomes farz on a girl? Is it when she starts menstruating? I am asking this question on the behalf of my friend. She suffers from the problem of gastritis so she did not keep roza of ramadan. Also at the time of exams she missed her fast. She did not know that it is a serious sin to miss fasts. Now when she came to know of this she wants to rectify her mistake. How is she supposed to keep these missed fasts? I know that if a person breaks his fast then she has to keep 60 fasts at a stretch. Will this apply to this case also because she did not keep the fast. If so is there any other way like can she give cash money to poor people. If yes then how much does she have to pay? If this rule does not apply to this case then how is she supposed to make up her missed fast?
A. Fasting becomes compulsory upon a girl when she reaches the age of puberty, which starts at the time she experiences her menses.
Seeing that she has missed the fasts, then she will have to make Qaza for these missed fasts.
In doing this, she will first of all get a total of the amount of fasts she had missed. After this, she should make a programme of how she intends to keep all these fasts, which will not be too difficult for her. She can fast two days every week (Mondays & Thursdays) or probably one day per week. If she remains consistent on this pattern, then she will be able to complete all the missed fasts.
Kaffarah or the penalty of fasting for 60 days consecutively is given only in cases where a person has intentionally broken the Ramadhan fasts by having sexual relations etc. This will not be applicable to your friend. Charity will only be given for missed fasts when a person is totally unable to observe the fast. This also will not be applicable to your friend. So, your friend must make up for all the Ramadhan fasts she has missed. She should not look at it as a burden. It is an easy matter if she looks at it with ease. She simply needs to be consistent in fasting for one day or two days per week, and Insha Allah very soon, she will complete all.
I hope she will not miss her Ramadhan fast in future. If, while trying to complete the Qaza fast, the month of Ramadhan comes in, then she will have to stop the Qaza fast and fulfill the Ramadhan fast of that year and after that, she will continue with the Qaza.
And Allah knows best.
Mufti Waseem Khan