Moreover, it is countered by something stronger, namely the ḥadīth of Abū Hurayrah in which the Prophet ﷺ said:

“There is no fasting after the middle of Shaʿbān until the arrival of Ramadan; and whoever still owes fast-days from Ramadan must observe them consecutively and not break them up.”

Al-Dāraquṭnī recorded it (p. 243), and al-Bayhaqī transmitted it from him through the route of Ḥibbān ibn Hilāl: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ibrāhīm al-Qāṣ—who is trustworthy—narrated to us; al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrated to us, from his father, from Abū Hurayrah. Al-Dāraquṭnī then remarked, “ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ibrāhīm is weak in ḥadīth.”

I reply: there is a difference of opinion about him. In the isnād cited by al-Dāraquṭnī he is explicitly declared reliable, and Ibn Maʿīn, al-Bukhārī, and others also rated him trustworthy. For that reason Ibn al-Qaṭṭān said—as recorded in al-Jawhar al-Naqī—“The scholars differ about him, and the ḥadīth he transmits is ḥasan.”

Al-Ḥāfiẓ (Ibn Ḥajar) further quoted Ibn al-Qaṭṭān as saying, “No one who criticized him produced any proof, and the ḥadīth is ḥasan.” Al-Ḥāfiẓ then rejoined, “I say: Ibn Abī Ḥātim reports from his father that he rejected this very ḥadīth when it came through ʿAbd al-Raḥmān.”

In sum, nothing in this entire chapter is authentically established, whether for or against the practice. The Qur’ānic command to hasten implies that one must make up the missed fast-days consecutively unless prevented by a valid excuse. This is also the position of Ibn Ḥazm (6 / 261), who said:

“If he fails to do so, he may make them up separately and that suffices him, for Allah the Exalted says, ‘then (make up the fast) by fasting on other days’ (2:184), and Allah set no time-limit after which making up the fast would lapse.”

This is likewise the opinion of Abū