The principle we refer to regarding physical and financial acts of worship is the saying of Allāh, the Most High: “and [Allāh] has not placed upon you in the religion any difficulty.” [Al-Ḥajj 22:78].

So, whoever is unable to perform an obligation moves to the lesser obligation, such as the choice between ablution (wuḍū᾽) and dry ablution (tayammum), praying while standing, sitting, or lying down. Whoever is unable to fulfill the lesser obligation and there is nothing lesser to fulfill, the matter falls to the abandonment of obligation due to incapacity, as Allāh says: “Allāh does not require of any soul beyond what He has given it. ” [Aṭ-Ṭalāq 65:7], and the evidence for this is the Ḥadīth of the man who had relations with his wife during the day of Ramaḍān.

Narrated Abū Hurayrah: “While they were sitting with the Prophet (PPBUH) a man came to him and said, “Messenger of God, I am undone.” He asked him what had happened to him and he replied that he had had intercourse with his wife while he was fasting. God’s messenger then asked him whether he could get a slave to free, but he replied that he could not. He asked if he could fast two consecutive months, but he replied that he could not. He asked if he could provide food for sixty poor people, and when he replied that he could not, he told him to sit down. The Prophet then waited for a time, and meanwhile an ῾araq containing dates was brought to him, an ῾araq being a huge basket. He asked where the man who had questioned him was, and when he replied, “[Here] I am,” he said, “Take this and give it as ṣadaqah.” The man replied, “Am I to give it to one who is poorer than I am, messenger of God? I swear by God that there is no poorer family than mine between the two lava plains of Medina,” i.e., the two harras. The Prophet thereupon laughed so that his eye-teeth became visible and said, “Give it to your family to eat.”

So, he allowed his to pay the expiation to himself because he was a destitute person.

Fatwa issued by Dr. Khālid Naṣr