(1) Meaning: it is forbidden, for the Prophet, peace be upon him, explicitly prohibited fasting during the days of tashriq. The early generations (al-salaf) employed the term karaha (“dislike”) in the same sense that it appears in the Quran and in the Prophet’s words. God says: “All of that—its evil is detested by your Lord” (Surah al-Israʾ, 17:38). In the sound hadith: “God dislikes for you idle talk, excessive questioning, and squandering wealth.” Ibn Wahb relates: I heard Malik say, “The people, and our predecessors, and none of those I took as exemplars ever declared of any matter: ‘This is halal’ or ‘This is haram.’ They did not dare to do so. Rather they would say: ‘We dislike such-and-such,’ or ‘We see this as good; this ought to be done; we do not approve of that.’” ‘Atiq b. Yaʿqub added: “They would never say ‘halal’ or ‘haram.’ Have you not heard God’s words: ‘Say: Have you considered the provision God has sent down for you, and you have made some of it haram and some halal? Say: Has God permitted you to do so, or are you inventing lies against God?’ (Surah Yunus, 10:59). Halal is what God and His Messenger have declared lawful, and haram is what God and His Messenger have declared unlawful.” Al-Khiraqi reports from Abu ʿAbd Allah Ahmad b. Hanbal: “It is disliked to perform wuduʾ in vessels of gold and silver,” yet his legal position is that it is not permissible. Muhammad b. al-Hasan explicitly stated that every act described as makruh is in fact haram. Abu Hanifa and his two companions said: “It is disliked for male children to wear gold or silk,” and the Hanafi authorities have clarified that it is haram. Malik, in many of his fatwas, said: “I dislike this,” while meaning it is haram. Later jurists, however, agreed to reserve the term karaha for what is not strictly forbidden—abstaining from it is better than doing it—and some of them retroactively interpreted the language of the early imams according to this new convention, which is a mistake. Worse still is to interpret the words karaha or “it is not befitting” in the Quran or the Sunnah by means of this later, technical usage. Consider the following: “It is not befitting for the All-Merciful to take a son” (Surah Maryam, 19:92); “We did not teach him poetry, nor does it befit him” (Surah Ya-Sin, 36:69); “The devils did not descend with it, nor does it befit them” (Surah al-Shuʿaraʾ, 26:210-211). Likewise the divine saying reported by the Prophet: “The son of Adam belies Me, and it is not befitting for him; he reviles Me, and it is not befitting for him.” The Prophet said: “God does not sleep, and it is not befitting for Him to sleep,” and regarding silk garments: “This is not befitting for the God-fearing.” See: Ibn al-Qayyim, Iʿlam al-Muwaqqiʿin, vol. 1, p. 39.