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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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The month of Ramadan came upon a Muslim who was ill with an illness that prevented him from fasting, and then death overtook him and he went to his Lord

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Eid Abbasi : The month of Ramadan came upon a Muslim who was ill with an illness that prevented him from fasting, and then death overtook him and he went to his Lord; so is expiation obligatory upon his heirs, or what?

The Shaykh : Nothing explicit has been established regarding this matter, although there is his saying (peace be upon him) in "the two Sahihs":
'A'isha (Allah be pleased with her) reported Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying: If anyone dies in a state (that he had to complete) some fasts, his heir must fast on his behalf. مَن مات وعليه صيام صامَ عنه وليُّه
Sahih Muslim 1147
. The Shafi'is adopted this view, making it obligatory for the guardian of the deceased to fast the days of Ramadan he missed due to his illness. However, what is stronger in our view is what Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) adopted, following the narrator of this hadith I mentioned earlier:
'A'isha (Allah be pleased with her) reported Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying: If anyone dies in a state (that he had to complete) some fasts, his heir must fast on his behalf. مَن مات وعليه صيام صام عنه وليُّه
Sahih Muslim 1147
. One of its narrators is Abdullah ibn Abbas, who interpreted this hadith as applying to the fasting of a vow. So if a person vows to fast a day or more and then does not fulfill it, the aforementioned hadith applies:
His guardian fasted on his behalf صام عنه وليُّه
. As for the fasting that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) directly obligated upon the Muslims for their purification and cleansing, the fundamental principle in Islam applies here:
And whoever purifies himself, it is only for his own soul that he purifies himself. وَمَنْ تَزَكَّى فَإِنَّمَا يَتَزَكَّى لِنَفْسِهِ
. But if a person imposes an obligation on himself that Allah did not impose on him, in the form of a vow, then the aforementioned hadith is applied to that:
'A'isha (Allah be pleased with her) reported Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying: If anyone dies in a state (that he had to complete) some fasts, his heir must fast on his behalf. مَن مات وعليه صيام صام عنه وليُّه
Sahih Muslim 1147
. Explicit hadiths have come regarding this; that a woman asked the Messenger (peace be upon him) that her sister or brother had died and he had fasting of a vow upon him, so he (peace be upon him) said:
Fast on his behalf - or on her behalf - صومي عنه - أو عنها -
. Thus, explicit hadiths came in the question and answer regarding the fasting of a vow, so Ibn Abbas (who is one of the narrators of this hadith, as we said) applied it to the fasting of a vow. This is what we see, and Allah knows best.

Eid Abbasi : Meaning, if he dies and has not made up an obligatory fast, does it drop from him or not?

The Shaykh : First, the question was not that he did not make it up, but rather that he died in Ramadan, or so I understood it.

Eid Abbasi : ... .

The Shaykh : Now we divide the previous question and answer into two parts; the first part: a man who is ill in Ramadan dies; in Ramadan, and he has days of Ramadan upon him; so my previous statement applies to this.
Source www.al-albany.com

The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.

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