A word about the month of Ramadan and the prescribed acts of worship within it.

The Shaykh : We say that the month of Ramadan contains three prescribed acts of worship: the first is fasting, which is the greatest of them; the second is standing in night prayer; and the third is i'tikaf (spiritual retreat in the mosque).
As for fasting, it is obligatory by the consensus of the Muslims, for it is one of the pillars of Islam, which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) described by saying: "Islam is built on five: testifying that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, establishing the prayer, giving the zakah, fasting in Ramadan, and making the pilgrimage to the House." These five, as it may appear to some people, are six, but they are five, for the testimony that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah is one, since they are the two pillars of every act of worship and the condition of every act of worship. There is no valid act of worship except with sincerity to Allah and following the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). Sincerity to Allah is encompassed by the testimony that there is no god but Allah, and following the Messenger is encompassed by the testimony that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.
Fasting in Ramadan is one of the pillars of Islam, so its status in Islam is great, and it is obligatory by the consensus of the Muslims. For this reason, the scholars said that whoever lives among the Muslims and denies the obligation of fasting in Ramadan is a disbeliever and an apostate, even if he fasts, because he has denied an obligation that is agreed upon and known by necessity from the religion of Islam. Fasting in Ramadan is established by its entry or by completing Sha'ban for thirty days, that is, by sighting its crescent or by completing Sha'ban for thirty days. It is, I mean fasting, worshipping Allah the Exalted from the dawn until the setting of the sun by abstaining from the things that break the fast, such as eating, drinking, sexual intercourse, and others. The true purpose of fasting is the mindfulness of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, as indicated by the Book and the Sunnah. Allah the Exalted said: He did not say "so that you may become hungry" or "so that you may train yourselves to bear hunger and thirst and restrain the self from desires." He said: And taqwa (mindfulness of Allah) is doing the commands of Allah and leaving His prohibitions. And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: This is the true purpose of fasting. But now, in the understanding of many Muslims, it is merely abstaining from the things that break the fast. Therefore, you find some of them who do not care about anything in the daytime of Ramadan except to spend their hours sleeping at times and in play at other times. You do not find on them any mark of fasting, and their day of fasting is not different from their day of breaking the fast; rather, they are the same for many people. This is what has deprived the Muslim community of the spirit of its acts of worship and its rituals, until the Muslims now, in many cases and among many of their peoples and individuals, perform these acts of worship as if they were a national slogan, not as a religious act of worship, as if it were a custom they followed and their fathers and grandfathers were upon it. And so the great meanings that follow from these noble acts of worship have been lost. For example, the prayer restrains from immorality and evil, but most people leave their prayer without being affected at all; they are not affected by a dislike of immorality and evil, even though if their prayer were upon the truth and as it should be, they would find in themselves that when they come out of it, they are averse to immorality and evil, because it restrains them from immorality and evil. Likewise, fasting: people are now fasting for a whole month. If they were as Allah wanted them to be, mindful of Allah and leaving the speaking of falsehood and acting upon it and ignorance, then a whole month, meaning one-sixth of the year, could not pass without them being fully educated in the obedience of Allah and the mindfulness of Allah. But who among us, when Ramadan ends, finds in himself more rectitude and good deeds than he was in Sha'ban? Most people, when Ramadan ends, rejoice with the joy of desire at the end of fasting, as if they rejoiced at its departure and did not rejoice at coming out of their sins. And so it is obligatory upon us to know the great wisdom of fasting and to fast as Allah wanted from us and as our Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) explained to us. We fast from the sins of Allah to the obedience of Allah, Mighty and Majestic.
Fasting, as we mentioned to you, is worshipping Allah by abstaining from the things that break the fast, from what? From the dawn until the setting of the sun. This is fasting. You must realize that you are in an act of worship, and the preliminaries and conclusions of fasting are acts of worship. For example, the suhur (pre-dawn meal) is an act of worship, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded it and said: And he indicated that in our suhur there is a difference from the Jews and the Christians, where he said: Then our Prophet and Imam Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) used to take suhur, and the Companions took suhur with him, as Zayd ibn Thabit said: So, we intend by our suhur, first, obedience to the command of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him); this is one. Second,
The student : differing from the Jews and the Christians.

The Shaykh : differing from the Jews and the Christians. Third,
The student: ...

The Shaykh : No, following the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), because I told you that the Messenger used to take suhur and the Muslims took suhur with him. So these are three things, all of which are acts of worship. Then we also say that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Where is the blessing? The blessing is all blessing: worship, following the Messenger, differing from the people of the Fire, aid for fasting, and giving the souls their share, since they will turn to a time in which they will abstain, so they get their share of this eating and drinking to be mindful of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, in His obedience. These are the preliminaries of fasting. The conclusions that follow fasting are breaking the fast. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded, indeed he urged, hastening to break the fast, and he said: But after being certain of the setting of the sun or having a strong presumption of its setting, if certainty is not possible. So suhur is an act of worship and breaking the fast is an act of worship. Let it be on dates; if he does not find them, then on water. First, dates are better than fresh dates, then dates other than fresh dates, then water if he does not find them. In addition to what occurs in fasting of patience, about which Allah said: Fasting contains patience in the obedience of Allah, patience from the sin of Allah, and patience with the decrees of Allah. Patience in the obedience of Allah, because the person bears the fasting and is patient with it and restrains his self, and thereby he is patient from the sin of Allah. Fasting brings upon the person hunger, thirst, weakness of the soul, and laziness, especially in the long, hot days, so types of patience gather in it. For this reason, it came in the hadith that the month of Ramadan is called the month of patience, because it contains the three types of patience. So it is good. Then it is obligatory upon us to think: if Allah the Exalted has forbidden us from our physical, bodily desires of eating, drinking, and sexual intercourse, then let us forbid ourselves from the spiritual desires. Many people, may Allah protect us, desire sins, desire lying, backbiting, cursing, and insulting. Is it reasonable that Allah, Glorified and Exalted, forbids us from physical desires and then we permit ourselves spiritual desires? The answer is: No, absolutely not, it is not from wisdom. For this reason, we say that sins, such as leaving the congregational prayer for whom it is obligatory, and deception, lying, backbiting, and the like, they diminish the fasting, even if we suppose that the person, from the time he fasted until he broke his fast, was in the mosque reading, praying, and glorifying Allah, but he commits these sins, then they will diminish the fasting, without doubt, because he has not come with the wisdom for which, what? Fasting was legislated.
The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: A fortress, meaning a protection by which a person guards against the sin of Allah, Mighty and Majestic. Meaning he does not commit sin and does not anger with his speech. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) guided him to not defend himself, but rather to say, "I am a fasting man." So if someone insults you and says to you, "You donkey, you dog, you are slow, you have such and such," and you are fasting, do not respond to him, even though if you responded to him, it would be permissible. But in fasting, no, do not respond to him. But do not appear as one who is unable to respond to him and counter him, and say, "I am fasting." In your saying "I am fasting," there are two benefits: the first benefit is rebuking him, and the second benefit is that you have the ability to respond to him and counter him, but fasting prevents you. All of this indicates that fasting is not merely restraining the self from its physical desires, but it is for a deeper, more eloquent, and more complete meaning.
In this issue, we address several matters. For example, if a person eats when he hears the call to prayer, and the mu'adhdhin usually calls when the sun has set, but it turns out that the mu'adhdhin made a mistake and the sun had not yet set, is he required to make up the fast? The answer is that he is not required to; he owes no make-up fast. However, if he sees the sun, he must abstain, and even what is in his mouth, he must spit out. But regarding what he did before he knew, he owes nothing. The evidence is the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He: This is a mistake, but it was unintentional. So Allah the Exalted said in the noble verse: Then, the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) in the time of their Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) broke their fast on a cloudy day, thinking that the sun had set. Then the sun appeared, and the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did not tell them to make up a day in its place. If making up the fast had been obligatory, he would have ordered them to do so. And if he had ordered them to do so, it would have been transmitted to us, because if he ordered it, it would be part of the Shari'ah, and nothing of the Shari'ah can be left out; it must be transmitted. Now, another man forgets that he is fasting and eats or drinks. What do we say to him? Does he have to make it up? He does not have to make it up. But when he remembers, he must stop immediately; it is obligatory for him to stop when he remembers. The evidence that he owes no make-up fast is: And this, my brothers, is a verse from the Book of Allah, not the opinion of so-and-so or so-and-so. Then there is a verse that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, approved; it is a supplication from the believers, but Allah approved it and gave it to them, giving them their supplication. He said: And there is a hadith in this same issue. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said: So the action was not attributed to him, but to Allah, because it was unintentional. Therefore, anyone who eats or drinks while fasting, whether out of forgetfulness or ignorance, owes nothing, my brother. You have evidence for this. Now, the evidence in this same issue...
The student : ... who eats or drinks

The Shaykh : ... who forgets while fasting
The student :

The Shaykh : This forgetfulness is ignorance
The student : The saying of Allah the Exalted: Our Lord, do not take us to task

The Shaykh : No, because This is general, so we need something specific regarding fasting, so that no one has an excuse who knows it. Glory be to Allah.
The student: ...

The Shaykh : I did not mention it, but it is correct, but I want what I mentioned.
The student: ...

The Shaykh : In the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)
The student : ... the sun had set ...

The Shaykh : And he did not order them to make it up. This is a text on the subject. Umm Salama, the daughter of Abu Bakr, narrated, and the hadith is authentic in al-Bukhari: This is an explicit text. So we take the rule that if someone does one of the things that break the fast out of forgetfulness or ignorance, his fast is valid, whatever it is. Even if, for example, a man was with his family and thought that the dawn had not yet appeared, so he had intercourse with his wife, and then it turned out that the dawn had appeared, he owes nothing: no make-up fast, no expiation, and no sin.