Question: With regard to the food-expiation that replaces fasting for someone unable to fast the entire month, is it permissible to give the whole amount in one payment to thirty needy people on a single day—at the beginning, the middle, or the end of the month? May it be given to fewer than thirty needy people? May one gather thirty needy people for one banquet—at lunch, dinner, or a Ramadan ifṭār—and will that discharge the obligation?

Answer: A person who cannot fast—because of advanced age or any other permanent impediment—may give the charity that compensates for his missed days of Ramadan either day by day or for the entire month at once. He is allowed to pay the expiation in advance at the start of the month, to defer it to the end, or to give it in the middle. He may give it as a single lump sum, or he may distribute it in instalments. He may give it to thirty needy people or to fewer; the number does not have to be exactly thirty. What matters is that it reach a group of needy or poor recipients.

As for cooking food sufficient for the thirty days (or for the number of days he did not fast) and gathering the needy to eat it, the majority of scholars do not consider this acceptable, because the requirement is to transfer ownership of the food to the needy person so that he may dispose of it as he wishes—by eating it, selling it, gifting it, and the like. Giving him uncooked food better enables such disposal, whereas cooked food benefits him only by being eaten.

Some scholars have permitted preparing a cooked meal for the expiation and inviting the needy who are entitled to it—feeding them breakfast or lunch in accordance with their number. A number of scholars allow this view, but, as we have said, the majority do not, because in that case the needy person is unable to make full use of the