A woman who has days of Ramadan to make up, and she heard in a hadith that (whoever fasts Ramadan and follows it with six days of Shawwal is as if he fasted the entire year), and she is unable to

The questioner : A woman has days of Ramadan to make up, and she heard in a hadith that She says she is unable to make them up. Is it valid for her to fast the six days of Shawwal and make up Ramadan in Dhul-Hijjah?

The Shaykh : No, it will not benefit her if she fasts the six days before making up Ramadan, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: However, if it is not possible for her to make up the fasts in Shawwal, for example, if a woman gave birth on the first day of Ramadan and her post-natal bleeding continued for forty days, then she became pure and began fasting Ramadan, she would fast twenty days of Ramadan in Shawwal and the rest in Dhul-Hijjah. In this case, she would receive the full reward because she delayed fasting the six days for a valid excuse. Some people have thought that fasting the six days of Shawwal is like other voluntary fasting, and said: if it is permissible for a woman, or for one who has Ramadan fasts to make up, to perform voluntary fasting, then it is permissible to precede the fasting of the six days before the make-up fasts. But this is not correct; this assumption is incorrect, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) explicitly stated that these six days must follow Ramadan, and that which follows cannot precede the completion of that which is followed.
As for voluntary fasting other than Ramadan, the disagreement on this is well known. Some scholars have said that voluntary fasting before making up Ramadan, meaning voluntary fasting before making up the fasts of Ramadan, is not valid. Others have said that it is valid. There is no doubt that the precautionary position is that it is not valid, meaning that we instruct this man to fast the obligatory debt, which is making up Ramadan, before performing voluntary fasting. This is what reason dictates: that a person should begin by fulfilling the obligatory before doing the voluntary.
For example, if someone says: I have ten days of Ramadan to make up, and the ten days of Dhul-Hijjah have arrived. Should I fast with the intention of fasting the ten days of Dhul-Hijjah, or with the intention of making up Ramadan? We say: Fast with the intention of making up Ramadan. If this make-up falls on the days of the ten of Dhul-Hijjah, Allah may write for you both rewards. Yes.

The questioner : May Allah bless you. This listener, Mansur Balawi, says in the first question.