What Are Isqat and Dawr?
The acts of worship that Allah the Exalted has commanded His servants are obligatory both to perform in their time and to make up (qada) when missed. Just as it is obligatory (fard) to perform the prescribed acts of worship at their appointed times, it is likewise obligatory to make up any act of worship that could not be performed on time. But what is to be done when the person responsible becomes permanently unable to perform or make up that worship?
This is where isqat comes in: the discharging of unperformed prayer (salat) and fasting (sawm) debts by paying a fidyah (redemption payment) for each of them. When the estate of the deceased is not sufficient to cover all these fidyah debts — or when there is no estate at all — the procedure applied is called dawr (in Turkish, devir: the circulating gift).
"And upon those who are able [to fast, but with hardship] — a ransom (fidyah): the feeding of a poor person." Surah al-Baqarah, verse 184
On this site you will find the evidences for isqat from the Qur'an and the Sunnah, the consensus of the scholars, and the method and conditions of dawr — all drawn from a classical source work. With the isqat calculator you can easily work out the fidyah amount due for your deceased relative and plan the dawr.
What Is Isqat?
Bodily and monetary worship, prayer debts, the state of incapacity, and the place of isqat in the religion.
Qur'anic and Hadith Evidences
Surah al-Baqarah 184, and the hadiths in Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, Bukhari-Muslim and Nasa'i, with the consensus of the jurists.
How Is Dawr Performed?
The definition of dawr, how it is carried out, who may take part, and the important points to observe.
Questions & Answers
"Does isqat have a basis?", "Can fidyah for prayer be paid in one's lifetime?", "Can a wealthy person receive it?" and more.
Isqat Calculator
Automatically calculate the prayer and fasting fidyah, expiations and the number of dawr rounds by age and gender.
Why Does It Matter?
What is incumbent (wajib) upon a responsible Muslim is to reckon up his worship debts just like his debts to people, to state them in his will (wasiyyah), and to set aside from one third of his estate an amount sufficient to cover them. As the source work states: for one who has sufficient wealth, abandoning the payment of the fidyah of his worship debts is a grave sin, because paying the fidyah of worship debts is wajib.