Does a Person Unable to Fast Have the Option to Feed One Person Every Day or Feed Them All…

Answer By Dr Zakir Naik,As far as Fidia for a person who can’t fast or is unable to fast, the Qur’an says in Surah Baqarah ch. no. 2 verse no. 184 that
“If a person finds it difficult to keep the fast or finds fasting with hardship then he can either fast or he can feed one indigent person for every fast that he has missed.”So if a person who misses the full month or Ramadhaan for example and if he has to give Fidia, he has both the options open, he either calls 30 people and feeds them together so that compensates all or gives Fidia for all the 30 days that the person has missed or he can even give one person Fidia for 30 days and each person should be given one Saa of the staple food of that state of that country. 1 Saa in equal to 1½ Kilograms approximately. And both rulings are there as its mentioned in the ruling of Ibn Abbas in Sahih Bukhari Vol. no. 6 Hadith no. 4505, In commentary of this verse of the Qur’an of Surah Baqarah ch. no. 2 verse no. 184, it says that those people who find it difficult to fulfill the fast, to complete their fast, they can either complete it or feed an indigent person and it says that these type of people described are very old men and women or those people who have permanent disability or they have a disease which makes them difficult to fast and both types of fast as is given in the Hadith of one of the Sahabas by the name of Anas Bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) when he was old the Hadith says that he cooked some food and he called 30 people and fed them together, the full… for the full month of Ramadhaan.So here it shows that you can even give cooked food, cook food for them and feed them all whether it be breakfast, whether it be dinner whatever it is or the other option is as is also agreed upon by Imam Ahmad Ibn Hambal, Imam Shafii as well as some of the Malikis that you can also give uncooked food to one person for 30 days, one person only, give him uncooked food for 30 days so that, that compensates the Fidia for the full month. The choice is yours either feed one person for 30 days or 30 people for one day