A Vow to Fast for a Month: Consecutiveness and How the Month Is Calculated
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, if someone makes a vow to fast for a month, is it obligatory for him to do so consecutively? And is the month determined by the sighting of the new moon, or does he fast for thirty days?
Answer:
If someone vows to fast for a month and makes the vow without specifying, then it is obligatory for him to fast consecutively, because the term "month" implies consecutiveness; a month is not a month unless it is consecutive. However, he is not required to fast a specific month, as all months are equal in this regard. Unless he intended a specific number, in which case he follows the number, because if he intends a month by number, meaning the number of days in a month, it is permissible to fast them non-consecutively. As for if he specified the term "month," then there is leniency. Yes. Unless he intended to fast them non-consecutively. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, if someone makes a vow to fast for a month, is it obligatory for him to do so consecutively? And is the month determined by the sighting of the new moon, or does he fast for thirty days?
Answer:
If someone vows to fast for a month and makes the vow without specifying, then it is obligatory for him to fast consecutively, because the term "month" implies consecutiveness; a month is not a month unless it is consecutive. However, he is not required to fast a specific month, as all months are equal in this regard. Unless he intended a specific number, in which case he follows the number, because if he intends a month by number, meaning the number of days in a month, it is permissible to fast them non-consecutively. As for if he specified the term "month," then there is leniency. Yes. Unless he intended to fast them non-consecutively. Yes.
Source
شرح بلوغ المرام من أدلة الأحكام [ صالح الفوزان ]، تابع كتاب النكاح - 1 — islamhouse.com (30:51)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.