the bathhouse with the purpose of scrubbing away his grime; if he does so, a fidya (compensatory expiation) is due. Every practice that brings comfort, removes dishevelment, or cleans away dirt is treated as casting off the state of taffath and is governed by the same ruling as wearing stitched clothes, shaving the hair, clipping the nails, or using perfume.
If a person, in one single interval, performs all or some of these acts out of forgetfulness, ignorance, or necessity, only one fidya is required for the whole. If he spreads them over several separate occasions, a distinct fidya is owed for each act—unless he is suffering from one continuous illness that forces him to repeat what he needs, in which case a single fidya suffices.
No one should knowingly do anything we have been ordered to avoid merely because the fidya is light; the concession applies only in cases of real necessity. The fidya may be fulfilled by one of three options:
- Feeding six needy persons, giving each two mudd of wheat;
- Fasting three days;
- Slaughtering a sheep.
He is free to choose any of these and may discharge it wherever he wishes, though it is preferable to offer the fidya in the place where it became obligatory.
According to Imām Mālik, the same fidya applies whether the act was done deliberately or unintentionally. If someone feeds barley or sorghum in a quantity equal to two mudd of wheat and gives it to a needy person, that is acceptable. The sacrificial animal must be of a kind that is valid for an ʿīd offering, and, Mālik said, a young animal (jadhʿ) is not mandatory. Feeding or fasting may substitute for the fidya of harm (adhā) and for the penalty incurred by killing game, but not for other blood compensations; the option of choosing among the three forms exists only in these two situations.
Anyone who offers a fidya before it actually becomes due gains no credit thereby. If a person applies unscented kohl out of necessity, nothing is owed; if he does so without necessity, a fidya is required—though ʿAbd al-Malik held that no fidya is due. Whoever plucks one hair or two is not liable for anything, yet if he gives even a handful of food in charity, that is commendable. Every minor infraction of this sort requires only charity and no blood payment, even if it is merely the clipping of a single nail.