not defective; its meaning is: “except that there be a man who happens to be observing a fast.”
What is taken from the ḥadīth
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The prohibition of anticipating the month of Ramadan by fasting one or two days before it begins. On the face of it the prohibition denotes unlawfulness, yet many scholars have understood it to indicate mere reprehensibility (makrūh). Those who ruled it unlawful focused on the explicit prohibition, whereas those who deemed it disliked looked to the exception contained in the ḥadīth. Al-Tirmidhī said: “They disliked that a man should hasten to fast before Ramadan begins, on account of the sanctity of Ramadan itself.”
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A concession is granted to anyone whose habitual voluntary fast coincides with the day or two before Ramadan—such as someone who regularly fasts on Mondays or Thursdays. This dispensation is agreed upon by the scholars.
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The wisdom behind the ruling—Allah knows best—is to distinguish obligatory acts of worship from supererogatory ones, and to enter Ramadan with energy and eagerness. Ibn Ḥajar considered the chief reason to be that the obligation of fasting is linked to sighting the crescent; whoever fasts a day or two earlier is, in effect, casting doubt on that ruling. Part of the wisdom may also be to discourage religious over-zealousness and the transgression of the limits set by Allah.
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If a person owes an obligatory fast—such as making up missed days of Ramadan or fulfilling a vowed fast—then fasting shortly before Ramadan is not merely permissible; it is incumbent. An obligation takes precedence over avoiding what is disliked.
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The ḥadīth mentions only “a day or two” because that is what most people who intend such anticipation attempt. Many Shāfiʿī jurists, however, held that the prohibition begins on the sixteenth of Shaʿbān, basing themselves on the marfūʿ report of Abū Hurayrah: “When Shaʿbān reaches its midpoint, do not fast,” recorded by Abū Dāwūd (2337), al-Tirmidhī (738), and Ibn Mājah (1651), and authenticated by Ibn Ḥibbān (3591) and others. Nevertheless, the majority of scholars permit voluntary fasting after the middle of Shaʿbān.