Kaffarah (كَفَّارَة — ‘expiation’ or ‘atonement,’ from the same Semitic root as Hebrew kapparah) is the formal mechanism in Islamic law for expiating specific categories of sin through prescribed compensatory acts. Unlike tawbah (which is purely internal repentance), kaffarah involves external acts of restitution ordained by sharia. The major categories: kaffarah for breaking an oath (freeing a slave, or feeding/clothing ten poor persons, or fasting three days); kaffarah for zihar (a pre-Islamic form of wrongful divorce — freeing a slave, or fasting two consecutive months, or feeding sixty poor persons); kaffarah for accidental killing (freeing a slave, or fasting two consecutive months); and kaffarah for breaking the Ramadan fast intentionally. The kaffarah system reflects Islamic jurisprudence’s characteristic approach: sin has social consequences that require social repair, not merely internal contrition. The sliding scale of kaffarah (freeing a slave → fasting → feeding the poor) reflects the Quran’s consistent concern for the liberation of slaves and relief of the poor as primary moral acts.