Questions & Answers

Isqat literally means "to cause to fall; to discharge". Isqat al-salat is the discharging, from the liability of a deceased person, of the prayer debts that remained without being made up (qada), by giving one fidyah (the sadaqat al-fitr amount) for each prayer. Isqat al-sawm is the discharging of the fasts that could not be kept or made up, by giving one fidyah for each day. The fidyah for fasting is established as explicit text (nass) by Surah al-Baqarah, verse 184; and prayer, being likewise a bodily act of worship, has been judged by analogy (qiyas) with fasting through the juristic preference (istihsan) of the scholars. For details, see the pages What Is Isqat? and Evidences.

Yes. The fidyah for fasting is established as explicit text (nass) by Surah al-Baqarah, verse 184. The fidyah for prayer is established by the report narrated by al-Nasa'i from Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) — "…but he feeds in his place, for each day, a mudd of wheat" — and by the scholars' analogy of prayer with fasting by way of istihsan. The scholars and jurists of the Ummah have reached consensus (ijma) and agreement on this. In the words of the source work: the claim "isqat al-salat has no basis" is wrong and void, because it amounts to annulling a religious ruling upon which the scholars and mujtahids of the madhhabs are united (Ibn Abidin, vol. 2, p. 121; Maraqi al-Falah with al-Tahtawi, p. 237).

It is not dropped of itself. Prayers abandoned without a valid legal excuse, or postponed with a valid excuse but then not made up although time and strength to do so were found afterwards, remain as a debt on the liability of the deceased. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The debt owed to Allah is more deserving of being paid" (al-Bukhari and Muslim). These debts are discharged only by giving fidyah — and, if the estate does not suffice, by performing dawr. The sole exception is this: prayers omitted in a state of incapacity (on a sickbed, unable to pray even by gesture), if the person dies without escaping that incapacity and without finding time to make them up, require — by unanimous agreement — neither qada nor fidyah.

No. In the report from Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) it is stated: "No one may fast the fasting debts of another, and no one may pray the prayer debts of another; but (the guardian, for the debts of the deceased) feeds the poor." That is, bodily acts of worship cannot be performed by proxy; but fidyah is given in their place and the poor are fed.

No, in no way whatsoever. Paying fidyah for prayer before death is not permissible or valid for anyone. For prayer can — and must — be performed sitting or lying down, even if only by gesture (ima). If a person cannot pray standing, he prays sitting; if he cannot sit, he prays by gesture from where he lies; abandoning the prayer is in no way permissible (Surah Al Imran, verse 191, and the related noble hadith).

Yes, but only for two groups: the shaykh fani — a person of such advanced age that his permanent inability to fast in summer or winter is certain — and the sick person who has lost all hope of recovery may pay the fidyah for their fasts before death; this is permissible and valid. All others keep their fasts, or make them up upon recovery.

One who broke the fast in Ramadan because he was ill or was travelling over the legal distance: if he dies without finding the time and strength to make it up — the sick person by recovering, the traveller by becoming resident — then neither qada nor fidyah is due for those fasts (Maraqi al-Falah with al-Tahtawi, pp. 236-237). If he found the opportunity to make them up but died without doing so, their fidyah is required.

If the deceased declared in his will (wasiyyah) the quantity of his outstanding prayer debts, that quantity is taken as the basis. If he did not declare it, or did not know it himself, then as a precaution the childhood years are deducted from his full lifespan and all the remaining years are reckoned. Twelve years are deducted for a man, nine for a woman. This is the more fitting course; for there is the possibility that he is indebted even for the prayers he did perform, through failure to observe their conditions or essential elements.

In one day and one night there are six prayers whose performance is fard, counting the witr prayer; this makes 180 prayers in a month and 2160 in a year. The fidyah of each prayer is one fitrah: 520 dirhams (1666 grams) of wheat, or its value at the current rate at the time it is given. In practice today, the sadaqat al-fitr amount announced each year by the Turkish Diyanet (Presidency of Religious Affairs) may be taken as the basis (240 TL for 2026). Accordingly, one day's prayer isqat is 6 fitrahs (at the 2026 rate, 6 × 240 = 1,440 TL); one day's fasting isqat is 1 fitrah (240 TL). You can easily work out the totals with the isqat calculator.

If one third of the estate of the deceased suffices for the fidyah of his worship debts, no dawr is required; the fidyah payments are given directly. If a third of the estate does not suffice, or there is no estate at all, dawr is performed: a sum of money is borrowed, given to a poor person as fidyah, the poor person accepts it and gifts it back, and the procedure is repeated until the debts are exhausted.

There is no number fixed by the Sacred Law for the poor who sit for the dawr; dawr may be performed even with a single person. There is no need to seek out a great number of people. Provided they are among the poor to whom the obligatory charities may permissibly and validly be given, performing the dawr with one or a few poor persons is more excellent and more fitting.

Those who may receive it: Fidyah is given to those to whom the obligatory charities — zakat, fitrah and vows — may permissibly be given; that is, to Muslims who are sane, of age, upright and poor.

Those who may not receive it: The rich person possessing wealth to the amount of the nisab (if it is given to him, the debt of the deceased is not discharged); the openly sinful (fasiq), who would spend the money on what is unlawful; the insane person and the child, since their gift is not valid; and also the ascendants and descendants (usul and furu') of the deceased — that is, his parents, grandfathers and grandmothers, his children and grandchildren — to whom it may not be given even if they are poor and live separately. Since the source work does not list anyone beyond the ascendants and descendants, it is permissible to give to relatives such as siblings, nephews and nieces, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, if they are among the poor entitled to receive zakat. Even so, for particular cases it is fitting to consult a mufti's office.

No. One who possesses wealth to the amount of the nisab is rich in the eyes of the Sacred Law; it is not permissible or lawful for him to receive the obligatory charities — fidyah, zakat, fitrah and vows. Since fidyah given to a rich person is not valid, the debt of the deceased is not discharged by it. The source work gives a particular warning on this point: people are for the most part heedless of this; many a rich person, coveting the charity of the dawr, sits for it and corrupts the dawr — the money of the deceased is spent, yet his debts are not discharged.

No. The ascendants and descendants (usul and furu') of the deceased — that is, his parents, grandfathers and grandmothers, his children and grandchildren — may not sit for the dawr even if they are poor and live separately, and they may not receive the obligatory charities, such as fidyah and kaffarah, of their own deceased.

No, in no way. For the dawr involves gifting back the money or goods after receiving and accepting them, and the gift of an insane person or a child is not valid. If they are poor and needy and one wishes to assist them, a suitable amount from the expiations is given to them without seating them for the dawr; if they are unable to manage money, it is given to their guardians to be spent on them.

It is preferable that the heir, guardian or executor of the deceased conduct the dawr in person; if he cannot, he appoints a competent person as deputy. It is not a condition that the conductor of the dawr be poor; for the conductor does not receive the fidyah — he gives it, and then accepts the poor person's gift. Being rich, or being an heir, is no bar to this.

If the deceased has no wealth from which fidyah may be given, it is valid for others to donate and pay the fidyah of his debts; the obligation is lifted from the deceased, and reward accrues to the one who donates (Lawami' al-'Uqul, vol. 1, p. 445). If there is no bequest: when all the heirs consent, it is paid from the estate of the deceased; if not all consent, those who do may donate from their own shares. If there is an orphan among the heirs, no fidyah may be paid nor dawr performed from wealth shared with the orphan; the adult heirs donate from their own shares.

The remedy for this is dawr, and it places no great burden on the family. If the deceased has no estate, a sum of money is borrowed, given to a poor person as fidyah; the poor person accepts it and gifts it back, and the procedure is repeated until the debts are exhausted. When the dawr is complete, the borrowed money is returned to its owner in full; that is, what actually leaves the family's hands is only a suitable charity for the poor who sit for the dawr — and, if means allow, the precautionary expiations. Nor does dawr require a crowd; it may be performed even with a single poor person. Moreover, it is valid for unrelated persons to donate and pay fidyah for the debts of the deceased, and the donor is rewarded. You can find out the sum required with the isqat calculator.

Yes. It is permissible to give the fidyah of many prayers and fasts to a single poor person at once (in one payment); the same applies to outstanding zakat, sacrifices and vowed charities. But expiations (kaffarah) are not so: it is not permissible to give one poor person more than the amount of one fitrah of expiation in a single day. For an oath expiation, one fitrah must be given to each of ten separate poor persons. But if the expiations are of different kinds (one an oath expiation, another a fasting expiation, for instance), one of each kind may be given to the same poor person.

After the dawr is completed and the borrowed money returned to its owner, as a precaution one oath expiation (10 fitrahs) and one fasting expiation (60 fitrahs) are distributed to the poor for the deceased. As a precaution, giving more — even distributing ten oath expiations — is more excellent. In addition, a suitable amount of charity is given to the poor who sit for the dawr; if the intention is made, this may be counted toward the oath and fasting expiations of the deceased.

Yes. For one who is unable, through permanent incapacity, to make up his worship debts, it is wajib and necessary to reckon up his debts, state them in his will, and set aside from one third of his estate an amount sufficient to cover them. For one who has sufficient wealth to bequeath less than what isqat requires and leave the remainder to the heirs makes himself sinful, since this is the abandonment of a debt whose payment is wajib upon him.