The Ruling on Singling Out Rajab for Fasting
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The Shaykh:
And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
The questioner:
We ask your permission, our honorable Shaykh, to take these questions that have reached us. Perhaps I will begin with this question from one of the listeners. He says: I always fast the white days of every month, and I have heard from the scholars that singling out Rajab for fasting is not permissible. So, should I continue fasting the white days, or does this fall under religious innovation (bid'ah)?
The Shaykh:
In the name of Allah, and all praise is due to Allah. May peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah. There is nothing wrong with your fasting, and it does not fall under religious innovation (bid'ah), because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded us to fast three days of every month. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said:Riyad as-Salihin 1260 Fasting the white days falls under this hadith. However, the religious innovation (bid'ah) occurs when a person singles out the month of Rajab for worship because he believes there is a special virtue in it, such as singling out the middle night of Rajab for standing in prayer and offering prayer, or singling out the month for fasting. This would be from religious innovation (bid'ah). Yes. May Allah reward you and bless you.
And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
The questioner:
We ask your permission, our honorable Shaykh, to take these questions that have reached us. Perhaps I will begin with this question from one of the listeners. He says: I always fast the white days of every month, and I have heard from the scholars that singling out Rajab for fasting is not permissible. So, should I continue fasting the white days, or does this fall under religious innovation (bid'ah)?
The Shaykh:
In the name of Allah, and all praise is due to Allah. May peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah. There is nothing wrong with your fasting, and it does not fall under religious innovation (bid'ah), because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded us to fast three days of every month. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
Observing Saum (fasting) on three days of every month is equivalent to a full month's fasting.
صوم ثلاثة أيام من كل شهر صوم الدهر كله
Source
قناة «إذاعة القرآن الكريم»، نور على الدرب مع معالي الشيخ صالح الفوزان ح7543 — youtube.com (1:06)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.