#521: How do I reconcile between the Fast of Dāwud and the Forbiddance of Observing the Fast on the Days of Friday or Saturday?
QUESTION
“Assalamu alaikum…Pls am abit confused. Wen fastind d fast of dawood are we going to skip friday and saturday???”
ANSWER
Wa alaykum Salām Warahmatullāh Wabarakātuh.
Alhamdulillāh
May Allāh reward you for your strong motivation toward the fast and the Dīn, āmīn.
Concerning the fast of Dāwud – alayhi As-Salām – it was authentically recorded in the Sahihayn from ‘Abdullah Ibn ‘Amr Ibn Al-‘Ās – radiyallāhu anhumā – that the Rasūl – salallāhu alayhi wasallam – said:
” إن أفضل الصيام صيام داود كان يصوم يوماً ويفطر يوماً
“Indeed, the most meritorious of Fasts is the Fast of Dāwud. He would fast one day and eat the other day.”
The ‘Ulamā have formed an agreement that the one who observes the fast of Dāwud is exempted from the prohibition of singling out Friday and Saturday for fast. This is because the Hadīth encouraging the fast of Dāwud – alayhissalām – is explicit in its mention of the fasting on one day and not on the other day.
The Hanbalī Imām Ibn Qudāmah aal-Maqdisī – rahimahullāh – said in Al-Mughnī:
“And it is disliked to single out the Day of Jumu’ah to observe the fast. The exemption is if it coincides with a day in which he fasts normally, such as if he were fasting a day and resting the other day and then his fasting day happens to be the Day of Jumu’ah. Or the one who normally fasts the first day of every month, or its last, or its mid, and the likes of that. This that we have said is a quotation from Ahmad (Ibn Hanbal)…”
Thus, this exemption to the prohibition of singling out the day of Jumu’ah for observing the fast applies for every fast that is regular for the believer. This is the Fatwah of Imām Ahmad – alayhi rahmatullāh.
Bārakallāhu fīkum
Jazākumullāhu Khayran
15th Jumādā Al-Ūlā 1439AH
📚 IslamNode
