Islamic · Ramadan · Hanafi fiqh
Fidya Calculator
For fasts that cannot be made up — one person fed for each fast missed. Priced from the staple-food measure and today's wheat rate, not from a figure that goes stale.
Do not confuse these
Fidya, Qada and Kaffarah
| Situation | What is owed | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Temporarily ill or travelling, able to fast later | Qada — make up the fast | One fast for one fast |
| Permanently unable to fast — chronic illness, old age | Fidya | One person fed per fast missed |
| Deliberately broke a fast without a valid excuse | Kaffarah | Sixty consecutive fasts, or sixty people fed — per fast |
| Died still owing fasts that could have been made up | Fidya from the estate | One person fed per fast owed |
Paying Fidya where Kaffarah is due does not discharge the obligation. If a fast was broken deliberately, use the Kaffarah calculator instead.
Reading the result
Only when the fast cannot be made up
Fidya is for someone who cannot fast and has no realistic prospect of making it up — chronic illness with no expectation of recovery, or advanced age. It is not a payment to opt out of fasting.
A fast missed through travel, temporary illness, pregnancy or menstruation is made up later as qada. No fidya arises, and paying it does not discharge the obligation to make the day up.
Feeding one person, for each day
The obligation is measured in food: feeding one person for each fast missed. The rupee amount is a conversion of that at local prices, which is why it differs between cities and rises with the price of staples rather than being fixed.
Where a whole Ramadan is involved, the total is thirty of those — a substantial figure that is worth planning for rather than meeting at the end of the month.
If circumstances change
Someone who paid fidya expecting never to fast again, and then recovers, is generally required by many scholars to make up the fasts. The fidya already paid is treated as charity. Worth knowing before assuming the matter is permanently settled.
Where this stops
Whether your circumstances call for fidya, qada or kaffarah is a question of fiqh, and the three differ enormously in what they require. Establish which applies before calculating any of them.
The kaffarah calculator covers the expiation for deliberately breaking a fast.
FAQs
Fidya FAQs
What is Fidya?
Compensation for a fast that will never be made up, because the person cannot fast and is not expected to recover the ability — chronic illness, frailty, or advanced age. For each fast missed, one poor person is fed for a day, or the value of that food is given. It is not a fine and not a way of buying out of fasting: it applies precisely where fasting is genuinely impossible.
How is Fidya different from Kaffarah?
Cause and scale. Fidya is for an inability to fast, and is one day's food for each fast missed. Kaffarah is expiation for deliberately breaking a fast without a valid excuse, and is far heavier — fasting sixty consecutive days, or feeding sixty poor people, for a single fast. Paying Fidya where Kaffarah is due does not discharge the obligation.
How much food is one day's Fidya?
The measure used is the same as Sadaqat al-Fitr: half a sa' of wheat or its equivalent, per person per day. Bodies differ on the modern weight of that measure, with figures commonly quoted between roughly 1.6 kg and 2.25 kg of wheat, and the price of wheat itself changes constantly. That is why this page asks for the weight and the price rather than printing a rupee figure that would be stale within weeks.
Can I pay the value instead of giving food?
Giving the value in money is permitted in the Hanafi position that this site follows, and is what most people do in practice because it is more useful to the recipient. Some other schools require the food itself to be given. Follow the position you follow.
Can it all go to one person?
Yes. A whole month's Fidya may be given to a single poor person, or split among many — the obligation is measured in days of food, not in number of recipients. The recipients must be eligible for Zakat: the poor and the needy.
I was ill during Ramadan but recovered afterwards.
Then Fidya is not what you owe. A temporary illness means the fasts are made up when you are able — that is Qada, not Fidya. Fidya belongs to the case where recovery is not expected. If someone dies still owing fasts they were able to make up, their heirs may pay Fidya from the estate.
What about pregnancy or nursing?
Scholars differ, and the difference is substantial: some hold that the fasts are simply made up later, others that Fidya is owed as well, depending on whether the fast was omitted out of fear for the mother, the child, or both. This is a case to ask about directly rather than to settle from a calculator.
Does Fidya replace the missed fast?
For someone genuinely unable to fast, it is what the law asks of them in place of the fast, and there is nothing further owed. For someone who can fast, no amount of money substitutes for it.
Related tools
Broke a fast deliberately?
That is Kaffarah, and it is a far heavier obligation than Fidya.
Open Kaffarah Calculator