“And for those who can bear it, a ransom: feeding a needy person” (al-Baqarah 2:184, excerpt).
One interpretation reads the passage as offering a former choice between fasting and compensation, later removed. Another reads it with reference to people for whom fasting entails exceptional, ongoing hardship, including certain cases of advanced age or incapacity.
The dispute turns on the meaning and context of yuṭīqūnahu and the class of people addressed. If the verse speaks about a special hardship case, the later general fasting requirement may not contradict it. Careful identification of the addressee comes before announcing abrogation.