The Ruling on Relatives Fasting as Expiation for Unintentional Killing
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His Eminence the Shaykh: If a man dies and he has a fasting expiation for killing upon him,Do a group of his relatives fast, i.e.: do they distribute the fasting among themselves?
The expiation for killing is freeing a slave, and if he does not find one, then fasting two consecutive months. The requirement of consecutiveness necessitates that the one fasting be a single person; because if, for example, ten people fasted, each one fasting six days, none of them would have fasted two consecutive months. Even if it were assumed that they took turns,Meaning: such that when one person fasts six days, the second begins on the seventh day, and when he completes six days, the third begins on the thirteenth day, that would not suffice; because it cannot be said of any one of them that he fasted two consecutive months. This is unlike making up missed days of Ramadan, where if a person dies and he has days of Ramadan remaining, there is no harm in multiple people fasting them on his behalf, even if they fasted on the same day.
The expiation for killing is freeing a slave, and if he does not find one, then fasting two consecutive months. The requirement of consecutiveness necessitates that the one fasting be a single person; because if, for example, ten people fasted, each one fasting six days, none of them would have fasted two consecutive months. Even if it were assumed that they took turns,Meaning: such that when one person fasts six days, the second begins on the seventh day, and when he completes six days, the third begins on the thirteenth day, that would not suffice; because it cannot be said of any one of them that he fasted two consecutive months. This is unlike making up missed days of Ramadan, where if a person dies and he has days of Ramadan remaining, there is no harm in multiple people fasting them on his behalf, even if they fasted on the same day.