Can missed fasts be observed at any time, in any month?

If I have to fast sixty days, can I fast thirty days in December and the other thirty days in February? 

Dear Brother / Sister,

Yes, you can perform missed qada fasting like this.

If the total days a person did not fast at various times are sixty days, they can be performed at different times. However, if kaffarah has become necessary for breaking a fast in Ramadan, it is necessary to perform fasting for two months without interruption.  

If a person breaks, without an excuse, his fast, which he has begun by intention, in the month of Ramadan, he has to fast for two months as kaffarah. If a person breaks fasting more than once like that in the same Ramadan or in different years, one kaffarah is enough for him. If he cannot fast, he will feed sixty poor people.

Kaffarah fasting is performed for two lunar months. For example, if a person fasts for two months on end in the months of Rabiulakhir and Rajab, he is regarded to have performed fasting for kaffarah. He does not have to perform fasting for sixty days. For instance, if the month of Rabiulakhir is thirty days but Rajab is twenty-nine days in that year, he will fast for fifty-nine days in total. He adds one day as qada; so, he fasts for sixty days.

However, if he starts the kaffarah fasting, say, on the fifth day or the tenth day of the month, not on the first day, he has to complete sixty days no matter how many days those months are. When he adds one day for qada, he wil have fasted for sixty-one days.  

It is necessary to fast two months or sixty days without interruption for kaffarah fasting. For example, if a journey, sickness, the month of Ramadan, eid, or puerperium for women, etc interrupts kaffarah fasting, before sixty days are completed, the fasting that has been performed is regarded as nafilah, not kaffarah; therefore, it has to be started again. The period of menstruation of women is not regarded as an obstacle that interrupts kaffarah. When the menstruation period is over, she resumes fasting.

The qada fasting of one day is not calculated together with kaffarah fasting. That is, a person who performs kaffarah fasting for two months, performs the qada fasting separately; he does not add it to kaffarah fasting and does not calculate them together. For example, a person who starts fasting on the first day of Rajab and continues in the month of Shaban without interruption is regarded to have completed kaffarah fasting. He can perform the qada fasting after Ramadan, for instance, on the second day of eid. Thus, both the kaffarah and qada are regarded to have been completed. It does not matter if the month of Rajab or Shaban is twenty-nine days. Kaffarah fasting is completed when two months end.

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