Al-Aswad related, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh, who said:
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Fortify your wealth by paying zakāt, treat your sick by giving charity, and prepare for calamities with supplication.” (1)
Al-Aswad recited the Qur’an to ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, and in turn Yahyā ibn Waththāb, Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī, and Abū Isḥāq al-Sabīʿī recited to him.
Yahyā ibn Saʿīd al-ʿAṭṭār narrates in Zuhd al-Thamāniyyah, from Yazīd ibn ʿAṭāʾ, from ʿAlqamah ibn Marthad, who said:
“Al-Aswad exerted himself in worship, fasting until his complexion turned green, then yellow. When death approached he wept.
“He was asked, ‘Why such anxiety?’
“He replied, ‘Why should I not be anxious? By Allah, even if I were brought news of Allah’s forgiveness, shame before Him for what I have done would still preoccupy me. A man may have committed a small offense against another who then pardons him, yet he remains perpetually embarrassed before that person.’”
Shuʿbah reported from al-Ḥakam that al-Aswad used to fast continually, day after day—this is an authentic report about him—and it seems that either the prohibition of this practice never reached him, or he interpreted it differently. (2)
(1) Abu Nuaym transmits it in al-Hilya 2/104 and 4/237, and al-Khatib in Tarikh Baghdad 6/334. The only narrator in the chain is Musa b. Umayr. Ibn Abi Hatim cites his father as saying: “Musa b. Umayr Abu Harun is worthless in hadith, a liar.” Abu Zur‘a also declared him weak, and Ibn ‘Adi observed that most of his reports are not corroborated by reliable transmitters. Al-Haythami, after tracing the report to al-Tabarani (Majma‘ 3/63–64), comments that its isnad contains Musa b. Umayr al-Kufi, who is deemed abandoned.
(2) This is the hadith collected by al-Bukhari (no. 495, Book of Fasting, chapter: The Fast of Dawud) and Muslim (no. 1159, Book of Fasting, chapter: Prohibition of perpetual fasting) from ‘Abd Allah b. ‘Amr b. al-‘As: “He has not fasted who fasts perpetually; fasting three days each month equals fasting the whole year.” The phrase “He has not fasted…” is a supplication against the person. Abu Bakr b. al-‘Arabi comments (al-‘Aridah 3/299): “Wretched indeed is the one touched by the Prophet’s supplication. If one insists it is merely an informative statement, then wretched is the one about whom the Prophet affirmed that he has not fasted; since the Prophet speaks only truth, no reward is recorded for him. When the Prophet negates virtue for someone, how can that person seek what the Prophet has denied?”
‘Abd al-Razzaq relates (Musannaf 7371) with a sound chain that Abu ‘Amr al-Shaybani said: “We were with ‘Umar b. al-Khattab when food was brought to him. A man withdrew, and on being told he was fasting perpetually, ‘Umar tapped his head with a reed-stick, saying, ‘Eat, you perpetual faster, eat!’”