Gathering sixty poor persons for cooked food is valid in expiation

16-6-2014 | IslamWeb

Question:

Is it permissible to give sixty persons uncooked rice as expiation? Can it, for example, be given out all at once to one poor family? What is the amount of food that everyone should take?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that none is worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and messenger.

 

Feeding sixty poor persons as expiation is fulfilled by giving every poor person half a saa’ (approximately one and a half kilograms) of wheat, dates, rice or whatever of the common food of the country.

This food should be uncooked; however, if one cooked food for sixty poor persons and gathered them together for it, then this will be valid and sufficient for fulfilling the obligation. It is not valid to give it all to only one poor family whose number is less than sixty members. That is because no poor person should receive more than half a saa’. However, if one is obliged to observe several expiations, then it is permissible for him to give to a single poor person half a saa’ from every expiation.

Allah Knows best.