Umm al-Fadl (Allah be pleased with her) is reported to have said that some people among the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) were in doubt about fasting on the day of 'Arafa and we were with him on that day. I (Umm al-Fadl) sent him a cup of milk and he was halting at 'Arafa, and he drank that.

Kuraib, the freed slave of Ibn 'Abbas (Allah be pleased with him), reported from Maimuna, the wife of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), that people had doubt about the fasting of Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) on the day of 'Arafa. Maimuna sent him a cup of milk and he was halting at a place and he drank it and the people were seeing him.

He who wishes to observe this fast may do so, and he who wishes to abandon it may do so.

It is a day when the people in the pre-Islamic days need to observe fast, so he who wishes to observe fast should do so, and he who wishes to abandon it should do so.

Abu Abd al-Rahman, it is the day of 'Ashura (and you are eating). Upon this he said: Fast was observed on (this day) before the (fasting) in Ramadan was made obligatory, but when it was made obligatory, (fasting on the day of 'Ashura) was abandoned. So if you are not fasting, then take food.

What is the (significance) of this day that you observe fast on it? They said: It is the day of great (significance) when Allah delivered Moses and his people, and drowned the Pharaoh and his people, and Moses observed fast out of gratitude and we also observe it. Upon this the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: We have more right, and we have a closer connection with Moses than you have; so Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) observed fast (on the day of 'Ashura), and gave orders that it should be observed.

The day of 'Ashura was one which the Jews respected and they treated it as Id. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: You also observe fast on this day.

I observed Id along with Umar b. al-Khattab (Allah be pleased with him). He came (out in an open space) and prayed and (after) completing it addressed the people and said: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) has forbidden the observing of fast on these two days. One is the day of Fitr (at the end of your fasts), and the second one, the day when you eat (the meat) of your sacrifices.

The days of Tashriq are the days of eating and drinking.

I met Abu Malih and asked him and he narrated it to me from the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). a hadith like one (narrated above) with this addition:" And remembrance of Allah"

Do not single out the night (preceding) Friday among the nights for prayer and do not single out Friday among days for fasting but only when anyone among you is accustomed to fast (on dates) which coincide with this day (Friday).

We, during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), in one month of Ramadan (observed fast according to our liking). He who wished to fast lasted and he who wished to break broke it and fed a needy person as an expiation 1544 till this verse was revealed:" He who witnesses among you the month (of Ramadan) he should observe fast during it" (ii. 184).

A man came to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) and said: Messenger of Allah, my mother has died (in a state) that she had to observe fasts of a month (of Ramadan). Should I complete (them) on her behalf? thereupon he (the Holy Prophet) said: Would you not pay the debt if your mother had died (without paying it)? He said: Yes. He (the Holy Prophet) said: The debt of Allah deserves more that it should he paid.

This hadith has been narrated on the authority of Ibn 'Abbas (Allah be pleased with them) from the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ).

When we were sitting with the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), a woman came to him and said: I had gifted to my mother a maid-servant, and now she (the mother) has died. Thereupon he (the Holy Prophet) said: There is a definite reward for you and she (the maid-servant) has been returned to you as an inheritance. She (that woman) again said: Fasts of a month (of Ramadan) are due upon her; should I observe them on her behalf? He (the Holy Prophet) said: Observe fasts on her behalf. She (again) said: She did not perform Hajj, should I perform it on her behalf? He (the Holy Prophet) said: Perform Hajj on her behalf.

" Fasting of two months."

This hadith has been narrated by Suhail with the same chain of transmitters.

I said to 'A'isha (Allah be pleased with her): Did the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) observe fast during a month? She said, I do not know of any month in which he fasted throughout except Ramadan and (the month) in which he did not fast at all till he ran the course of his life. May peace be upon him.

He used to observe fast (at times) so continuously that we said: He has fasted, he has fasted. And (at times) he did not observe fast (for days) and we began to say: He has abandoned fasting, he has abandoned fasting. She said: I did not see him observing fast throughout the whole of the month since he arrived in Medina, but that of Ramadan.

" During any month continuously since he came to Medina."