half a sāʿ of the staple food commonly eaten in the country for each day, as an expiation for postponing the make-up without a valid excuse. Allah knows best.

***

Question: A devout woman who fasts and performs every prayer on time stopped fasting one Ramadan several years ago after nineteen days because she was pregnant. One or two years later she did not fast the entire month of Ramadan for the same reason, and some years after that she again missed the whole of Ramadan on account of childbirth. To this day she has not made up any of those missed fasts, and she did not realize the consequence of her delay. What must she do now, and what expiation is required?

Answer: If a pregnant woman breaks her fast out of fear for herself or her unborn child, or she breaks her fast because of menstruation (ḥayḍ) or post-natal bleeding (nifās), these are legitimate excuses that permit her to eat and drink. However, she is still obliged to make up the missed days and must do so before the next Ramadan begins, for Allah the Exalted says, “And whoever among you is ill or on a journey, then let him fast the same number of other days” (Qurʾan 2:184).

Accordingly, this woman must hasten to make up the fasts before another Ramadan arrives. Since several Ramadans have now passed and she missed a number of days in each and delayed making them up, she has erred—unless she had a genuine excuse that made fasting impossible. If she is now able, she must begin immediately to make up the days she missed, starting with the earliest Ramadan and then the next, and so on in sequence. Along with the make-up she must feed one needy person for every day that she delayed until another Ramadan had come.

As for the most recent Ramadan, between which and the present no subsequent Ramadan has intervened, it suffices her