until he told him, “Fast one day and break the fast the next; that is the fast of my brother David—peace be upon him.” (1)
It is also authentically reported that he said, “The best form of fasting is the fasting of David.” (2)
He ﷺ forbade fasting every single day of the year. (3)
He likewise commanded that one sleep for a portion of the night, saying, “I myself stand in prayer and I sleep, I fast and I break my fast, I marry women, and I eat meat; so whoever turns away from my sunnah is not of me.” (4)
Anyone who does not rein in his soul during worship and his regular litanies by the prophetic sunnah will end up remorseful, adopting monastic ways, ill-tempered, and deprived of much good that lies in following the sunnah of his Prophet—so gentle and merciful toward the believers, so keen on their benefit. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ has always taught the community the most excellent deeds and has constantly urged them to shun the celibate monasticism with which he was not sent. Thus he forbade perpetual daily fasting (sard al-ṣawm), prohibited fasting two or more days without breaking the fast at night (wiṣāl), disallowed spending most of the night in prayer except during the last ten nights, forbade remaining unmarried for one who is able to marry, and forbade abstaining from meat—among other similar injunctions.
= Al-Sawm; and 9/83 in Fada’il al-Quran, “Chapter: How much of the Quran should be recited.” He only said this after he had grown old and could no longer maintain what he had first undertaken; in another wording: “I would rather have accepted the three days recommended by the Messenger of Allah than possess my family and my wealth.”
(1) This sentence is part of the foregoing hadith.
(2) Reported by al-Bukhari, 3/13–14, in Kitab Qiyam al-Layl, “Chapter: Whoever sleeps at sahar,” and by Muslim (1159) (189) in Kitab al-Siyam, “Chapter: The prohibition of fasting all the time,” through the narration of Abd Allah ibn Amr.
(3) Reported by al-Bukhari, 4/195, in Kitab al-Sawm, “Chapter: The fast of Dawud,” and by Muslim (1159) (187) in Kitab al-Siyam, “Chapter: The prohibition of fasting all the time,” with the wording: “He has not truly fasted who fasts perpetually.”
(4) Reported by al-Bukhari, 9/89–90; Muslim (1401) at the beginning of Kitab al-Nikah; and al-Nasa’i, 6/60, from the narration of Anas ibn Malik.
Al-Hafiz said in Fath al-Bari: By sunnah here is meant “way” or “method,” not sunnah as opposed to fard. To “turn away from something” (raghbah an) means to leave it for something else; thus, whoever abandons my way and adopts another is not of me. He was alluding to the monastic path, for they were the ones who innovated excessive rigor, as Allah described them, and He reproached them for failing to live up to what they had imposed on themselves. The Prophet’s way is the easy, upright hanifiyyah: he would break the fast to gain strength for fasting, sleep to gain strength for night prayer, and marry to curb desire, safeguard the soul, and increase progeny.