Ramadan

Must I Specify Dates for Making Up Missed Fasts?


Hanafi Fiqh

Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel

Question

What is the minimum intention for a Qada fast? If one has Qada from multiple Ramadan years, must one specify which year and day they are making Qada for?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate.

I pray you are in good faith and health.

One must specify one’s intention to keep a make-up (qada) fast the next day. One just has to say I am keeping the make-up (qada) fast of the first Ramadan, and so on. One does not have to specify the year if one does not remember.

Specific

The following types of fasts require an intention and specification of the kind of fast as well as that the intention be made the previous night before fajr, yet after maghrib (tabyit):

  •  Make ups (qada’) from Ramadan;
  •  Make ups from voluntary (nafl) fasts that one invalidated;
  •  Fasts of expiation (kaffara);
  •  Unspecified vows (nadhr mutlaq). [Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar; Tahtawi, Hashiyat ‘ala Maraqi al-Falah]

Related: Fasting: A Comprehensive SeekersGuidance Reader

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I pray this helps with your question.
Wassalam,
[Mawlana] Ilyas Patel

Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Mawlana Ilyas Patel is a traditionally trained scholar who has studied in the UK, India, Pakistan, Syria, Jordan, and Turkey. He started his early education in the UK. He went on to complete the hifz of the Quran in India, then enrolled in an Islamic seminary in the UK, where he studied the secular and ‘Aalimiyya sciences. He then traveled to Karachi, Pakistan. He has been an Imam in Rep of Ireland for several years. He has taught hifz of the Quran, Tajwid, Fiqh, and many other Islamic sciences to children and adults onsite and online extensively in the UK and Ireland. He taught at a local Islamic seminary in the UK for 12 years, where he was a librarian and a teacher of Islamic sciences. He currently resides in the UK with his wife. His interest is a love of books and gardening.