about which some people think that the author’s words indicate that one attains the reward even when it concerns a specified day of voluntary fasting.

For an intention formed during the day to be valid in a voluntary fast, one must not have done anything beforehand that breaks the fast. Thus, if a man begins the day having eaten, then during the mid-morning says, “I intend to fast,” it is not valid, because he has done something incompatible with fasting.

If someone were to say, “Do you not maintain that he is rewarded for the fast only from the time of his intention?”

We say: Yes; but a day in which he has eaten or drunk cannot be considered a fast.

His statement, “before noon or after it”: if someone says, “There is no need for his saying ‘before noon or after it,’ since he has already said, ‘A voluntary fast is valid with an intention made during the day,’” we say: Yes, that is correct. However, the author needed to state this because there is another view on the issue: namely, that intending a voluntary fast after noon is not valid. Their reasoning is that most of the day has passed while one was not fasting and had formed no intention; and rulings in such matters follow what is predominant and greater. Thus, since most of the day has passed without an intention, if he forms the intention after noon, it is not considered a fast. This is why the author needed to say, “before noon or after it.”

“Even if he intends, ‘If tomorrow is Ramadan, then it is my obligatory fast,’ it does not suffice him …”

His statement, “Even if he intends, ‘If tomorrow is Ramadan, then it is my obligatory fast,’ it does not suffice him”: this is an important issue that arises frequently. A person’s fast does not suffice if he intends that, if tomorrow is Ramadan, it will be his obligatory fast—whether he says, “Otherwise, it is voluntary,” or says, “Otherwise, I am not fasting.”