The Ability.
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The Shaykh : The fourth is the ability, and its opposite is inability. The scholars said that inability to fast is divided into two categories: a continuous, permanent inability and a temporary inability that is expected to end. The first category is
The questioner : the continuous inability.
The Shaykh : And the second
The questioner : is the temporary inability.
The Shaykh : The temporary one that is expected to end. That is enough, take a rest. An example of the first is the elderly person, whose inability is continuous, because an elderly person who is unable to fast due to old age cannot return to youth so that he can fast. And an example is the disease of cancer, may Allah grant us safety from it, for this disease is usually not expected to end, so the inability of this patient to fast due to this disease is an inability not expected to end. What is obligatory for this category of the unable? It is obligatory for him to feed one poor person for every day. It is obligatory for him to feed one poor person for every day. And how is the feeding done? The feeding has two forms:
The first form is that he prepares food and invites poor people to it, equal in number to the days. So if the month is twenty-nine days, how many must be brought? Twenty-nine poor people. And if it is thirty, thirty poor people must be brought. This is one form.
The second form of feeding is that he gives the poor people grain and they take charge of cooking it. And the best and easiest thing to feed people today is rice, so he gives each of them five sa' (a dry measure of about 3 kg) of rice.
The questioner : the continuous inability.
The Shaykh : And the second
The questioner : is the temporary inability.
The Shaykh : The temporary one that is expected to end. That is enough, take a rest. An example of the first is the elderly person, whose inability is continuous, because an elderly person who is unable to fast due to old age cannot return to youth so that he can fast. And an example is the disease of cancer, may Allah grant us safety from it, for this disease is usually not expected to end, so the inability of this patient to fast due to this disease is an inability not expected to end. What is obligatory for this category of the unable? It is obligatory for him to feed one poor person for every day. It is obligatory for him to feed one poor person for every day. And how is the feeding done? The feeding has two forms:
The first form is that he prepares food and invites poor people to it, equal in number to the days. So if the month is twenty-nine days, how many must be brought? Twenty-nine poor people. And if it is thirty, thirty poor people must be brought. This is one form.
The second form of feeding is that he gives the poor people grain and they take charge of cooking it. And the best and easiest thing to feed people today is rice, so he gives each of them five sa' (a dry measure of about 3 kg) of rice.