“It would happen that I still owed days of fasting from Ramadan, yet I could not make them up until Shaʿbān because of being occupied with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ or on his behalf.”
Al-Bukhārī likewise records this ḥadith in his Ṣaḥīḥ, contrary to what the author’s citation suggests. In another version narrated by Muslim she said:
“At times one of us would break her fast during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and would be unable to make it up while still with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ until Shaʿbān arrived.”
Both variants make it explicit that she lacked the ability to make up the fasts before Shaʿbān, and they imply that, had she been able, she would not have delayed. Thus the report is evidence against the author and those who preceded him. For this reason al-Zayn ibn al-Munayyir (may Allah have mercy on him) remarked:
“The outward conduct of ʿĀʾishah indicates a preference for hastening to make up the fasts were it not for what prevented her due to preoccupation; this suggests that anyone without an excuse ought not to postpone them.”
Know that Ibn al-Qayyim, Ibn Ḥajar, and others have clarified that the phrase in the ḥadith, “because of being busy with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ or on his behalf,” is interpolated (mudraj); it is not ʿĀʾishah’s own wording but that of one of its transmitters, Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd. Evidence for this is Yaḥyā’s statement in another Muslim narration: “I assumed that this was on account of her position with the Prophet ﷺ.”
This, however, does not undermine the point we have made, for we did not base our argument on that interpolated phrase but on her statement, “so I could not….” The interpolation merely explains the reason for her inability, which is irrelevant to the issue at hand. I do not know how this escaped al-Ḥāfiẓ, who concluded his commentary on the ḥadith by saying:
“This ḥadith indicates the permissibility of delaying the make-up of Ramadan fasts in all cases, whether one has an excuse or not, because the additional phrase, as we have shown, is interpolated …”?!