Is an expiation obligatory for one whose child died while not yet of age?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Honorable Shaykh. A questioner, or rather a questioner who was sitting in my house, specifically in the sitting room with me, and I had a book with me that I was reading. Then three of my daughters came in to play, but Allah willed it, and His will is above all things in every matter. So...
The Shaykh : ...and the one who? Burned.
The questioner : ...and His will is above all things. She was on top of the cabinet in the large sitting room, and I was sitting to its right side,
The Shaykh : ...and what was in it? A mushaf?
The questioner : He says: My three daughters came in to play, but Allah willed it, and Allah’s will is above all things. He says: My three daughters came in to play, but Allah willed it, and Allah’s will is above all things. They stood in front of the cabinet in the large sitting room, so I sat to the right side. The middle daughter and the youngest were cleaning the cabinet and the books, but the movement of children is inevitable. So the middle one stood up and opened the right drawer, meaning the right door of the cabinet, and I advised them not to let it fall on them, and she got entangled in it, and I advised them not to let it fall on them. She got entangled in it while I was reading the book and I did not pay attention to the cabinet, so it fell on the youngest one this day. I took her to the hospital and they performed an operation on her, and they found a large fracture in her head caused by the cabinet. On the day of the festival, the soul of this girl departed; she was five years, eight months, and four days old. So, is fasting obligatory on us because of the death of the child? And if fasting is obligatory on us, is it on the father or on the mother? Please inform us, may Allah grant you success, and peace be upon you and Allah’s mercy and blessings.
The Shaykh : There is no expiation on this child who is five years old because she is not yet of age, and a condition for the obligation of expiation is being of age, and the expiation is a right for Allah
The Shaykh : ...and the one who? Burned.
The questioner : ...and His will is above all things. She was on top of the cabinet in the large sitting room, and I was sitting to its right side,
The Shaykh : ...and what was in it? A mushaf?
The questioner : He says: My three daughters came in to play, but Allah willed it, and Allah’s will is above all things. He says: My three daughters came in to play, but Allah willed it, and Allah’s will is above all things. They stood in front of the cabinet in the large sitting room, so I sat to the right side. The middle daughter and the youngest were cleaning the cabinet and the books, but the movement of children is inevitable. So the middle one stood up and opened the right drawer, meaning the right door of the cabinet, and I advised them not to let it fall on them, and she got entangled in it, and I advised them not to let it fall on them. She got entangled in it while I was reading the book and I did not pay attention to the cabinet, so it fell on the youngest one this day. I took her to the hospital and they performed an operation on her, and they found a large fracture in her head caused by the cabinet. On the day of the festival, the soul of this girl departed; she was five years, eight months, and four days old. So, is fasting obligatory on us because of the death of the child? And if fasting is obligatory on us, is it on the father or on the mother? Please inform us, may Allah grant you success, and peace be upon you and Allah’s mercy and blessings.
The Shaykh : There is no expiation on this child who is five years old because she is not yet of age, and a condition for the obligation of expiation is being of age, and the expiation is a right for Allah
Source
اللقاءات الرمضانية لعام 1413هـ - 2 — binothaimeen.net (49:34)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.