A person was ill throughout the month of Ramadan, and he died while in the hospital without making up any fasts or paying expiation for them. What is required of him now? Should the fasts be made up on his behalf, or should expiation be paid?

The questioner : A person was ill throughout the month of Ramadan, and he died while in the hospital without making up any fasts or paying expiation for them. What is required of him now? Should the fasts be made up on his behalf, or should expiation be paid? We ask for your guidance.

The Shaykh : If the illness that afflicted him during Ramadan was of a kind from which people despair of recovery, then it is obligatory to feed the poor on his behalf, and the fasts are not made up on his behalf.
As for if it was an illness from which recovery was expected, but it worsened until he died, then there is no obligation to make up the fasts or to feed the poor on his behalf, because the obligation of one who breaks his fast for an illness from which recovery is expected is to fast. So if the illness continued with him, there is no obligation to make up the fasts, because his obligation was to fast when he was able. However, in a case like this, if at the beginning of Ramadan his illness was one from which recovery was expected, and after the middle of the month the illness changed to one from which recovery is not expected, and then he died, then we say: he must feed the poor for the last days when his illness reached the point where recovery was not expected. As for the first days, the obligation in them was to make up the fasts. Since he was unable to do so, it is dropped from him.