O you who believe, fear Allah and speak words of justice. * He will rectify your deeds and forgive

The Shaykh : Whoever Allah guides, no one can mislead, and whoever He leaves to misguidance, no one can guide. And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His messenger. [Al-Ahzab: 71]. As for what follows.
Indeed, the best of speech is the speech of Allah, and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). And the worst of matters are their innovations, and every innovation is a religious innovation (bid'ah), and every religious innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire.
Considering that we are approaching the month of fasting, the blessed month of Ramadan, if Allah wills, we thought it best to take advantage of this occasion, from this gathering, to read to you and explain to you some of the hadiths that were reported in the Book of Fasting from the book "Bulugh al-Maram min Ahadith al-Ahkam" by al-Hafiz Ahmad ibn Hajar al-Asqalani.
He (may Allah have mercy on him) said: The Book of "Fasting". From Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: It is agreed upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim. In this hadith, there is an explicit prohibition against advancing before Ramadan by fasting one day or more. This falls under the category of preserving the prescribed amount of fasting, which is the month of Ramadan. Therefore, it is not permissible for a Muslim to add to Ramadan, whether by advancing or delaying by one or two days. In reality, although this hadith came specifically regarding the prohibition of advancing and connecting days from the month of Sha'ban with the month of Ramadan, it contains a strong hint that it is not permissible to add to the obligatory worship. This is an explicit ruling prohibiting a man from advancing by fasting one or two days before Ramadan. Included in this, without a doubt, is fasting the Day of Doubt, as will come in the second hadith.
This prohibition against anticipating Ramadan by fasting one day or two days affirms the obligation to preserve worship as it was legislated, without addition or reduction. What Allah (Mighty and Majestic) obligated upon His believing servants is only the fasting of the month of Ramadan. It may be thirty days at times, and twenty-nine days at other times. It is not permissible to anticipate [it] by fasting one day or two days for fear that Ramadan will become more than thirty days, given the passage of time and the Muslims' distance from knowledge of the Book and the Sunnah.
So I say that at the time when this hadith explicitly prohibits anticipating Ramadan by fasting one day or two days, likewise, no worship is to be anticipated. Just as it is not permissible to connect to it other worships and acts of obedience that are not part of it. It is necessary to have a separation that establishes the independence of this obligatory fast, which is the fasting of Ramadan. It is necessary to have a separation by breaking the fast before it and after it, so that it is established that this obligation is only the obligation of Ramadan, with nothing anticipating it and nothing connected to it. Of the same nature entirely is what came in Sahih Muslim regarding the prohibition by the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) of connecting the obligatory Friday prayer with the recommended prayer (sunnah) that follows it. He commanded separation between the obligatory and the voluntary, either by speaking or by leaving and departing. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibited connecting the obligatory prayer with the recommended prayer that follows it.
This is also part of the category of blocking the means (sadd al-dhara'i') to prevent connecting to the obligatory what is not part of it. The Day of Friday in particular, and all obligatory acts in general, it is necessary after the closing salam to have a separation, either by leaving and changing location, or by speaking with your companion in ordinary speech, to achieve this separation. Know that the matter is as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said regarding prayer: , meaning that what was forbidden to you previously in prayer becomes permissible for you simply by saying "Peace be upon you and Allah's mercy" with the first salam. But from the category of emphasizing this separation beyond just the salam, and from the category of blocking the means to prevent connecting to this obligatory act, which is the obligatory prayer, something that is not part of it, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) emphasized to the one praying that he should speak or depart. Right, left, front, and back, all of this emphasizes this matter which the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded: not to anticipate Ramadan by fasting one day or two days, and to establish the month of Ramadan without adding to it, just as it is not permissible to reduce from it. And the extra, as the common people say, is the brother of the deficient.
He says: , Is this prohibition absolute? The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) answered this question: . This exception clarifies that the previous prohibition is specific to one who intentionally anticipates Ramadan by fasting one day or two days. As for another person who has a system of fasting, for example, if it is his custom to follow the known recommended practice (sunnah) of fasting Monday and Thursday of every week, and it happens that a Thursday comes and it is one day before Ramadan, does he fall under this prohibition ?
The answer is no . So this person who has accustomed himself to this prescribed fasting is allowed to anticipate Ramadan with such fasting because he did not intend this anticipation. And the direct target of this prohibition is fasting the Day of Doubt, about which a specific hadith will come. Because the one who fasts the Day of Doubt fasts the day that is before Ramadan, and it has not yet been established that this day, the Day of Doubt, is from Ramadan. So he fasts it as a precaution. And opening the door of precaution in religion is opening a large door of addition to religion. And this, in reality, has many examples in some jurisprudential rulings.
Perhaps those present know that some schools of jurisprudence (madhahib) obligate one who prayed on Friday to pray the Dhuhr prayer after finishing it. Some schools of jurisprudence obligate this, but other schools do not obligate it, from the category of what the first school obligates, which is that the prayer was not valid, so this one is prayed. But this other school says that there are conditions in which there is disagreement; if they are met, the prayer is valid. If the prayer of Friday is not valid because the conditions were not met, then from the category of precaution, it is good to pray the Dhuhr prayer after Friday. This precaution leads its proponent to contradict what is known from religion by necessity, which is that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) only obligated five prayers in every day and night. And it leads to contradicting another text, which is his (peace and blessings be upon him) saying: . We know that the obligatory prayer on Friday is the Friday prayer. So if the Friday prayer is not valid, [one prays] the Dhuhr prayer. But to pray twice, once with the intention of Friday and once with the intention of Dhuhr, this is contrary to this hadith and contrary to that which is known from religion by necessity. The hadith says: . This is in the same time, the time of Dhuhr, he prayed two prayers: the Friday prayer and then the Dhuhr prayer.
Therefore, it is not permissible for a person to anticipate the ruling specified in the Shari'ah from the category of precaution, or from the category of what the common people say: "An increase in good is good". There is no good after what Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has legislated through the tongue of His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) of good.
In summary, this hadith, at the time when it prohibits the Muslim from anticipating Ramadan by fasting one day or two days, clarifies that there is no objection to fasting what was customary for him before Ramadan. If he has a custom of fasting, for example, three days of every month, and Ramadan comes, he is allowed to fast these three days. He is allowed to fast two days, he is allowed to fast one day, as long as he did not intend the fasting for the sake of Ramadan, because Ramadan is limited in its days. He only fasted in implementation of that prescribed custom which he was upon.
So this hadith, whose authenticity is agreed upon by the scholars, directly includes what the scholars differed on regarding fasting the Day of Doubt. Some of them say it is prescribed as a precaution, and some say its fasting is not prescribed. The hadith that preceded is evidence and support for the opinion that says fasting the Day of Doubt is not prescribed. That is because it will come in the authentic hadiths that Ramadan is established by sighting [the moon]. If there is no sighting, then completing the month, meaning the month of Sha'ban, to thirty days.
So why does a person fast the Day of Doubt?