What is the ruling on fasting six days of Shawwal regarding their consecutiveness, and what is the position of one who has missed days to make up? Which takes precedence?

The questioner : The question for this hour is about fasting six days of Shawwal with strict consecutiveness and within the month, and about fasting six days of Shawwal while having missed days from Ramadan to make up, whether the person is a man who is traveling or sick, or a woman who is menstruating. So, if Allah wills, everyone will benefit from this question.

The Shaykh : May Allah reward you with good. Your question will force us to break our promise because it requires a lecture, and therefore we will summarize the answer as much as we can. First, as for the one who has missed days to make up and the month of Shawwal has arrived, and he wants to fast six days of Shawwal as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: This is the one who has missed days from Ramadan to make up, whether he is a sick man or a woman for one of her excuses. He has three states, and we begin with the most important and the significant, and what is below that. The most important is that he must begin with making up what he owes from Ramadan, because this making up is an obligatory duty that is necessary. This is the first matter, and he does not begin with fasting six days of Shawwal, because this is voluntary and that is obligatory, and the obligatory takes precedence over the voluntary. And there is a sound report from Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) that "Allah Mighty and Majestic does not accept a voluntary act of worship from a servant if he has an obligatory duty." Therefore, he must begin with this obligatory duty of making up what he owes from Ramadan. This state is obligatory in terms of the ruling. But the best, we say now, is that he begins by making up what he owes from Ramadan, then he fasts six days of Shawwal after he has made up what he owes from Ramadan. Here, he has combined two intentions in two acts: the act of making up what he owes, which is the first intention and the act for it, and the other act is that he fasted six days of Shawwal with a specific intention for Shawwal. In other words, if we suppose a person owes six days to make up, he fasts six and six: six with the intention of making up, and six with the intention of the six days of Shawwal. This is the best. Next is what is below it, which is that he intends what he owes from Ramadan to make up, and suppose it is six days, and he intends with this intention that he specified for the act of making up what he owes from Ramadan, he intends only the intention of the six days of Shawwal. In other words, instead of making his making up in the months after, he makes this making up in this month and intends the six days of Shawwal, even though he only intended to make up what he owes from Ramadan. This is the second state, and it is better. The other state is that he intends a pure intention for Ramadan and does not intend anything else. What is the difference? The difference is that the one who made up what he owed from Ramadan was written for him the reward of an obligatory duty, and the one who fasted six other days was written for him the reward of six days of Shawwal, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: As for the one who intends only the intention of Ramadan in his act, then adds to that the intention of the six days of Shawwal, he is written a good deed for the intention, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said in the sound hadith narrated from his Lord Blessed and Exalted is He: So this one who fasted six days, six days of Ramadan, and made them up in Shawwal, if he did not intend except the intention of making up, he was written the reward of good deeds up to a hundred good deeds, and so on. If he added to the intention of making up from Ramadan the intention of the six days of Shawwal, he was written a good deed because he intended but did not act. And from here the difference between the sequence becomes clear to you: a person fasts the six he owes, then adds to that six days of Shawwal, so this is undoubtedly the best of the states. The second fasts the six from what he owes to make up, and with them the intention of the six days of Shawwal, so this is written for him the reward of his act of six days of making up and one intention that he placed in Shawwal. The third and last is that he made up what he owed from Ramadan and only that, nothing else. These are the ranks that can occur.