The ruling on fasting for an elderly person suffering from diabetes

Question:
Your Eminence, my father (may Allah have mercy on him) passed away while he was ill and of advanced age. He did not fast for three years before his death. The reason was that he was ill, of advanced age, and also suffering from diabetes; he could not do without water for even a moment. I ask for your answer. May Allah grant you success.

Answer:
As long as he was in that condition, fasting was not obligatory on him, but feeding the poor was. You should feed on his behalf one poor person for every day. This is because when an elderly person finds fasting difficult, he is to be fed on his behalf, one poor person for every day. There is no making up of fasts for him, nor any making up of fasts for you either; it is only the feeding. If you have not fed on his behalf, feed on his behalf half a sa' of the local staple food for every day: dates, rice, or wheat. Give this to some of the poor. It can be collected and given to some of the poor, even if it is just one poor person, or one poor household. If it is collected, it can be handed over to one poor person, two, or more, and praise be to Allah. The amount is half a sa', which is approximately one and a half kilograms.