I am asking on behalf of a friend who – while being a Muslim – for many years strayed from the path and didnt fulfil his religious obligations whether prayers or fasts. Only recently has he come back to practicing the faith, and has been working hard on making up for his past and genuinely reforming himself. However, one thing he is feeling hopeless about is making up missed fasts. He has calculated all his intentionally missed fasts for the month of Ramadan, and has come up with a personal number of having to either make up 8400 fasts as kaffarah (breaking a fast means fast 60 days) or feed 8400 poor Shia (60 people for each broken/missed fast). What should he do in this circumstance?

He should make up the fasts that he missed and if he is unable to give the kaffarah then pray sincerely for forgiveness and insha Allah Allah is the most merciful.