I know that memorising the whole the Quran is fard kifaya but are there any other fard kifaya acts ?

  • Some examples: Friday prayers every Friday, offensive jihad according to a sizeable part of shafi'i and hanafi scholars, having enough of every profession to satisfy society's halal needs (al-Ghazali says this with regard to physicians), dawah, funeral prayers; I don't think just a long list of fard kifaya acts would make an interesting answer, not sure what to do with this question. – G. Bach Mar 5 '17 at 14:31
  • @G.Bach I don't know of any madhab who considers the Jumua' prayer fard kifaya. It is fardu 'ain meaning obilgatory for any Muslim (unless he has valid reasons). – Medi1Saif Mar 5 '17 at 21:32
  • @Medi1Saif Oh you're right, I mixed it up; it's fard ain, but not going a week is a minor sin, unless the man hasn't gone the two previous weeks either, at which point it becomes a major sin. I mixed that up with the eid prayers. – G. Bach Mar 6 '17 at 0:16

The most known examples are the funeral prayer (salat al-Janazah beside the janazah -burying itself- and the ghusl of the dead person), jihad, memorizing quran, getting or seeking knowledge, enjoining what is good and forbidding what is evil and ijtihad.

What constitutes fard al-kifaya فرض كفاية is that it is an obligation on the Ummah, but if any of them perform this obligation the rest would be exempt from performing it, but if nobody does it the Ummah would be considered as sinning.

قال الإمام الشافعي رحمه الله : "حق على الناس غسل الميت ، والصلاة عليه ودفنه ، لا يسع عامتهم تركه. وإذا قام به من فيه كفاية أجزأ عنهم ، إن شاء الله تعالى" انتهى من "الأم" (source islamqa#131270)

Al-Imam a-Shafi'i has written in his al-Umm: "a right people must fulfill is washing the dead, praying on him and burying him, and they can't leave it all of them, if enough people did it those would be rewarded and the rest exempt from it, if Allah wills"

But a fard kifaya can easily move from this state to the state of fard 'ayn فرض عين, an obligation which must be performed by anybody (except people who have special conditions).
For example if Muslims don't have their own physicians anybody would be asked to learn this science until we would have a capable person, if nobody re-reads the sources and does ijtihad we are all asked to do so until we find at least one capable person.
And for jihad it is fard kifaya for jihad to attack the enemy (if this is an allowed option) or help oppressed Muslims in a place far away, but if the enemy is in your country it would be fard 'ayn to fight him!

Some relevant posts:
Is ijtihad open in Islam (Sunni view)?
Levels of approval/disapproval


example: The five daily prayers for which muslims are individually responsible!

  • 1
    That is an example of fard 'ayn not fard al-kifaya. – UmH Sep 24 '20 at 14:17
  • You've missed the topic. Fard kifaya is a duty which is addressed to all Muslims, but if at least one person does it all others are exempt from it, but if none of them do it all will be sinful. While the daily prayers are a duty on each Muslim (individually), so if one didn't perform his prayer he will be sinful anyway. – Medi1Saif Sep 25 '20 at 11:46

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