What is the ruling on fasting on Saturday?

The questioner : ... fasts on Friday and Saturday.

The Shaykh : ... No, one does not fast after this prohibiting and preventing hadith has come, because it tells you that the hadith was not about fasting on Saturday; fasting on Saturday came incidentally. The inquiry was actually about fasting on Friday, when the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: The intent was focused on the prohibition of fasting on Friday. The dispensation came for whoever wants to fast on Friday, allowing him to fast a day before it or a day after it. ... This is a dispensation, and that is a prohibition and a present matter, so the present matter takes precedence over the permissive one. Therefore, the example you cited from Ibn Taymiyyah is actually from the jurisprudence of Ibn Taymiyyah, and by that, many of the contradictions in the texts are resolved. But that does not apply at all to what we are discussing here, because there is a command and there is a prohibition. How do you reconcile them? You look at the two general texts. If the generality of one is weakened, you apply the general text whose generality was not weakened to the text whose generality was weakened. Here, there is a command and a prohibition. There is absolutely nothing of that kind here; here there is a present matter and a permissive one. Therefore, our previous answer is what we mentioned earlier.


The questioner : Now, what is your opinion of the statement, or what is the validity of the claim, that when they asked his wife (peace and blessings be upon him), they intended to follow his example?

The Shaykh : What did they ask?

The questioner : About the fasting of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). What is the validity of this statement, or the refutation of this statement?

The Shaykh : What is the difference? It is the same whether they asked or they did not ask. When the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did something, whether a question came about it or not, it becomes a Shari'ah. If a questioner asks about what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did regarding a matter of piety, it remains as the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did it. And I think you mean by this question that...The questioner : ... we imagine that the one you are quoting from was aware of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): . Where does this come from? It is mere imagination and a mere attempt to escape the explicitness of the hadith: . Please proceed.