Is suspicion of breaking a fast in Ramadan sufficient to establish the obligation of expiation (kaffara)?


Question

Am I required to fast 60 days in a row as an expiation?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

If you are not sure that you broke a fast in Ramadan, you are not required to do any expiation. Your suspicion that you may have broken a fast is insufficient to establish the obligation of expiation (kaffara).

This is due to the principle that ‘capital punishments, as well as expiations, are averted, due to even the most minute ambiguity or doubt.’ [Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar]

See this link for a Reader on Fasting Ramadan

Hope this helps
Allah knows best
[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch

Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Yusuf Weltch is a teacher of Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he then completed four years at the Darul Uloom seminary in New York, where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences. He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he stayed for three years studying in Dar Al-Mustafa under some of the greatest scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib. In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Qur’an and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Qur’anic exegesis, Islamic history, and a number of texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.