Eight Times You Cannot Fast in Islam
The Prohibited Times of Fasting: Understanding Sawm ad-Dahr and Islamic Fasting Regulations
Summary
This lecture from Sahih Bukhari's Book of Fasting discusses the eight days or times when a person is prohibited from fasting according to Islamic law. Sh. Ali Mashhour lists six prohibited fasting occasions: Fridays alone, the days of Tashriq (11th-13th of Dhul-Hijjah), the two Eids, Saturdays alone, the second half of Sha'ban (for those without a scheduled fast), and Yawm ash-Shakk (the doubtful day before Ramadan). The lecture then elaborates on the seventh and eighth prohibitions, with the eighth being Sawm ad-Dahr (fasting every single day of the year), which is explicitly forbidden. Sh. Ali Mashhour explains through the hadith of Abdullah ibn Amr that fasting continuously throughout the year is not permissible, even with good intentions, as it contradicts the Sunnah and removes the meaningful contrast that makes fasting spiritually beneficial.
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I'm about to continuing in wages of Siam. Book of fasting. In the chapter regarding. Siam and I am and many and her. The days. That the prophet Alihi Wasallam. Prohibited. A person fast. So we've mentioned. Or the author has mentioned has listed six days so far. Six times. When a person is not permitted to fast. There's actually eight. In total. So we have two more. Let's see if we can list the first six. So. The first six. Times when a person is prohibited of fasting or or six days. Let's go. Huh? Juma one Farid. So fasting Friday on its own. The days of Tashriq, so 11, 12, and 13th of Dhul-Hijjah. Al-Eidain, the two days of Eid. Saturday alone, okay? Right. So, the second half of Sha'ban. Right, the second half of Sha'ban liman lam takun lahu ada, for a person who doesn't usually doesn't have a a scheduled fast then during those times. Okay, one more. Word it a little better. Yawm ash-Shakk. The day the the dubious time before Ramadan, the right before Ramadan when it's it's not necessarily the day before Ramadan. If it were the day before Ramadan, and let's say you fast every Monday and Thursday, and the day before Ramadan happens to be a Monday, you can fast that day. Happens to be a Thursday, you can fast that day. Yawm ash-Shakk is specifically the day when the moon was not sighted because of cloud coverage or because of something. It could have been, but we're not sure. And so, for that reason we're still looking for the moon, so now it is called Yawm ash-Shakk, right? And it's referred to as the day of the doubtful day because a person is doubtful of whether or not it is the 30th day of Sha'ban or it is the first day of Ramadan. This is the reason that it has this name. Okay, seven and eight. So, let's see we can get through the last two. or actually seven. Yeah, seven. One more. Yaqulu Mu'allif, "Sawmu ad-Dahr The final day or the final time when a person is prohibited from fasting it's actually very easy to remember and that is fasting every other day than the ones that have been listed. So, siyam ad-dahr meaning fasting the entire year, every single day. Even if you break your fast on those days which we had just discussed. So, if a person were to say, "I'm going to fast every day, all the time. I'm never going to break my fast except on the days when specifically I've been commanded to break my fast." So, those first six that we mentioned. Still, this is a prohibited thing to do. It is not permissible to fast every single day of the entirety of the year.
[Silence]
Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-As, may Allah be pleased with him and his father, he narrates to us in Bukhari and Muslim that the messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wasallam said to me, "Now, remember Abdullah ibn Amr he is the one that his father had noticed that he was fasting every single day. He was praying the entirety of the night and reciting the Quran every single day. Now, that's extreme. You want to say extremism, right? That is too much. That's extreme. And it didn't come from a place of desperation, didn't come from a place of I want to prove myself, you know, young man, a lot of times. They want to They want to make a point and try to find their identity in the world. It didn't come from that place. It came from a place of true passion and love and fear of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Yet, in spite of that, not all good intentions are necessarily necessarily you know, produce the correct actions. And it being upon the Sunnah isn't even enough. It has to be in the way that the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam did it. And so, Abdullah ibn Amr, the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam said to him, so he's narrating to us, he said to me, "Oh Abdullah son of Amr, indeed you I you know, I've come to know that you fast every day, all year, year round, and you pray all night, every night. And if you do this, this will negatively affect your body." He says, "Hajamat al-ain wa nahakat." Al-ain hajamat, meaning that his eyes will start to suck in. He will start to look emaciated, and the light in a person's eyes will start to go out or dim, right? Because it it it literally sucks the life out of you. And And the thing is is that we live in a world of contrast. When can we appreciate the daytime? Only if we experience night. When do we appreciate joy and happiness? Only if we have instances of sadness. We live in a place of contrast. And so if we fast every single day, there's no contrast left. The The lessons that we are to learn from fasting are no longer as obvious. The same thing with prayer at night. If a person never has sleep at night, then they will lose the contrast that is intended by standing in prayer at night. And so, the prophet Sallallahu alayhi wasallam then says, and this statement is where the prohibition comes from. He says, "La sawma.
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Sawma man sam al-abad. Lannu mush sayim al-an." He says, "A person who fasts every day is not fasting at all." Right? What does that mean? we just mentioned, there is no contrast anymore. There is no fasting and and not fasting contrast there anymore. And if everyone were to do this, right? In Islam, we don't have special rules for special people. Right? This is This is how the people of the book before us went astray. One of the ways is that they had special rules for special people. If you're a scholar or if you're a righteous person, you have special set of rules. But if another person is not a scholar, then they can break all those rules. That doesn't exist in Islam. What applies to one applies to all. And what is permitted for one is permitted for all. So, we have to imagine in any of the laws of Islam, if everyone were to do this or the majority of people were to do this, what would happen to the Muslim state? What would happen to the Muslim people? Everyone is fasting every single day and everyone is praying all night every single night. What would occur? this is unsustainable. And so, the prophet Sallallahu alayhi wasallam.
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Ghadiba Mamnu'ul ghadab, sah? Mamnu'ul ghadab?
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Hadha Hadha mush bashar, hadha. I don't know. I don't know. I know. I don't I don't know. I don't I don't know. I don't I don't I don't know. I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't Abu Qatada narrates that a man came to the prophet and said, "Oh messenger of Allah, how do you fast?" Right? And so, the messenger of Allah became visibly angry from what this man had said. And Omar was present and when he noticed the prophet's anger, he said audibly, "We are sufficed with Allah as our Lord, with Islam as our religion, and with Muhammad as our prophet. We seek refuge in Allah from the anger of Allah and from the anger of the messenger of Allah." And he continued to repeat this.
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The prophet calm again, until he calmed down. And so, the messenger of.
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Question. He corrected the question. He said, "Oh messenger of Allah, what is the ruling for a person who fasts every single day of the year?" The prophet said, "He has neither fasted nor has he broken his fast." He has neither fasted nor has he broken his fast. Meaning he has neither fasted Islamically, legislatively, in the Sharia of Islam, this is not fasting. He has not fasted, which means that it is not valid. Nor has he broken his fast. Meaning physically he's not broken his fast. So he's in this bizarre valley between two places. He's neither fasting nor has he broken his fast. And that valley is the valley where many people will lose their fight with the Shaitan. Why? Because they are not sufficed with the Sunnah of the prophet Alihi Wasallam. The question is why did the messenger of Allah become angry with this question? Because the question insinuates that it's not enough. The question insinuates that you know, we could physically fast every single day and even the messenger of Allah could fast every single day. It's as if he has he He viewed his fasting, fasting every Monday, every Thursday, fasting 3 days a month, fasting that this is not enough. Could be more, should be more, right? And so for this reason was saying what he said and reframed the question as what's the ruling for someone who goes beyond your fasting? What's the ruling for someone who fast the entirety of the year? He said, "He has not fasted nor has he broken his fast. This person is in a lose-lose situation.".
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