What Steps Should One Take to Rectify Missed Ramadan Fasts?
Question
How do I rectify my state after missing many years of fasting Ramadan?
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate
Take the following steps to rectify your situation:
Repent
Firstly, one should sincerely repent to Allah Most High for abandoning their obligations.
The rules and limits of the Sacred law are for the Worldy and Next Worldy benefit and salvation of the creation, us. Allah Most High does not need our worship; instead, it is we that benefit and we who are desperately in need of Allah’s mercy and aid.
True, sincere repentance entails that one meets the following conditions:
- A state of sincere remorse for one’s sins
- Abandoning the sin
- Resolving never to repeat the sin
[Nawawi, Riyadh al-Salihin]
Make-Up the Fasts
One should strive to make up for what one has done as part of one’s repentance.
In this case, the fasts which were omitted since one reached puberty till the present day are obligatory to make up. [Shurunbulali, Maraqi al -Falah]
To do this, one must determine how many fasts one did not perform. This can be achieved by estimating a number that reasonably covers the number of fasts. After that, one can add more to be cautious.
After determining the amount, one should make the intention to make up all the estimated fasts. After that, one will need to schedule a number of fasts that one can do without putting oneself in undue hardship.
By this method, one will consistently chip away at the amount of fasts they owe until they have all been made up.
Please see:
https://seekersguidance.org/answers/hanafi-fiqh/brief-overview-of-expiatory-payments-fidya/
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.
