The Ruling on Consecutive Fasting for the Expiation of Unintentional Killing
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, regarding the expiation for unintentional killing, is the fasting to be consecutive, or is it permissible to break the fast one day and fast the next?
Answer:
The view extends to the end. Allah the Exalted said:[An-Nisa 4:92] up to His saying: [Al-Mujadila 58:4] Consecutively; consecutiveness is necessary.
If one breaks the consecutiveness without a valid legal excuse, he must restart the fasting from the beginning. However, if he breaks it for a valid legal excuse, such as a woman who experiences menstruation, post-natal bleeding, or if the month of Ramadan or the days of the festival fall upon him, he breaks the fast for the valid legal excuse. When the valid legal excuse ends, he continues the fasting and builds upon what has passed; he does not restart, but builds upon what has passed. This is because this is either a mandatory breaking of the fast or a mandatory fasting. Therefore, consecutiveness is not broken by a mandatory breaking of the fast, such as the two festivals, menstruation, and post-natal bleeding, nor by a mandatory fasting, such as the month of Ramadan. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, regarding the expiation for unintentional killing, is the fasting to be consecutive, or is it permissible to break the fast one day and fast the next?
Answer:
The view extends to the end. Allah the Exalted said:
And whoever kills a believer by mistake - then the freeing of a believing slave and a compensation payment presented to the deceased's family [is required] unless they give [up their right as] charity.
وَمَن قَتَلَ مُؤْمِنًا خَطَأً فَتَحْرِيرُ رَقَبَةٍ مُّؤْمِنَةٍ وَدِيَةٌ مُّسَلَّمَةٌ إِلَىٰ أَهْلِهِ إِلَّا أَن يَصَّدَّقُواAnd he who does not find [a slave] - then a fast for two months consecutively
فَمَن لَّمْ يَجِدْ فَصِيَامُ شَهْرَيْنِ مُتَتَابِعَيْنِIf one breaks the consecutiveness without a valid legal excuse, he must restart the fasting from the beginning. However, if he breaks it for a valid legal excuse, such as a woman who experiences menstruation, post-natal bleeding, or if the month of Ramadan or the days of the festival fall upon him, he breaks the fast for the valid legal excuse. When the valid legal excuse ends, he continues the fasting and builds upon what has passed; he does not restart, but builds upon what has passed. This is because this is either a mandatory breaking of the fast or a mandatory fasting. Therefore, consecutiveness is not broken by a mandatory breaking of the fast, such as the two festivals, menstruation, and post-natal bleeding, nor by a mandatory fasting, such as the month of Ramadan. Yes.
Source
شرح بلوغ المرام من أدلة الأحكام [ صالح الفوزان ]، باب الرجعة، وباب الإيلاء والظهار والكفارة — islamhouse.com (58:29)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.