His messengers the sense He willed, without likening Him to anything and without asking how: “Nothing is like Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing” (Q 42:11).
I found, in al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Ḍiyāʾ’s own handwriting, a small fascicle in which he had jotted criticisms of Ibn Ḥibbān’s book. He wrote:
“In the ḥadith of Anas on continuous fasting 1 there is evidence that every report claiming he tied a stone to his stomach because of hunger is baseless. What is really meant is al-ḥujaz—the hem of the cloak—for Allah was providing food for His Messenger, and a stone does nothing to relieve hunger.
I say: Yet Ibn Ḥibbān himself transmits in his book the ḥadith of Ibn ʿAbbās about Abū Bakr and ʿUmar who went out because of hunger, met the Prophet ﷺ and told him. He replied, ‘The One who made you come out is the One who made me come out.’ 2 This shows that he was fed and given drink only in the case of continuous fasting.
Al-Ḍiyāʾ also said, concerning the ḥadith of ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn: The Prophet ﷺ asked a man, ‘Did you fast anything from the sarar of Shaʿbān?’ He answered, ‘No.’ He said, ‘When you break the fast, then fast two days.’ 3
This interrogative wording is intended to declare that such fasting is impermissible, in the manner of one who is reproving it.
Hadith of Abu Hurayra. It is also transmitted by Ahmad 1/201 and by al-Tabarani (no. 2886) through the isnad of al-Husayn b. Ali; by Abu Ahmad al-Hakim in his work al-Kuna through Abu Bakr; by al-Tabarani in al-Saghir 2/43 through Zayd b. Thabit; by al-Hakim in his History through Ali; and by Ibn Asakir through al-Harith b. Hisham. See Ibn Rajab, Jami al-Ulum wa-l-Hikam, p. 105.
(1) Reported by Muslim (1104) in the Book of Fasting, Chapter: The prohibition of continuous fasting (wisal), through the chain: Asim b. al-Nadr al-Tamimi – Khalid b. al-Harith – Humayd – Thabit – Anas. Anas said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ practised wisal at the beginning of Ramadan, so some Muslims did the same. When this reached him he said: ‘If the month were lengthened I would continue fasting in this way so that those who go to extremes would abandon their extremism. You are not like me—or he said: I am not like you—for I spend the night while my Lord feeds me and gives me drink.’ ”
(2) See Musnad Abi Bakr by al-Marwazi, edition prepared by the present editor.
(3) Reported by al-Bukhari 4/200-201 in the Book of Fasting, Chapter: Fasting at the end of the month; by Muslim (1161) in the Book of Fasting, Chapter: Fasting during the sirar of Sha‘ban; and by Abu Dawud (2328). The “sirar” of Sha‘ban are its final days, when the moon is concealed.