and the expiation for ẓihār—provided the sequence is not broken by travel, illness, or any other state that permits one to break the fast, such as menstruation or post-partum bleeding. Should an interruption of that sort occur, he must renew his intention. This is one of the narrations from Imam Aḥmad, and a number of his companions—among them Abū’l-Wafāʾ ibn ʿAqīl—preferred it.
They support this view with the report found in the two Ṣaḥīḥs: “Actions are only judged by intentions.” The faster has resolved to observe the whole month, and Ramaḍān is regarded as a single act of worship.
The majority, however, maintain that each day is an independent act of worship that requires its own distinct intention.
A practical difference appears when a legally responsible person, in Ramaḍān or while fasting an expiation, sleeps from before sunset until after dawn. According to the first view, his fast is valid; according to the second, it is not, because he did not formulate the required intention during the night. The first view is the stronger.
The scholars also disagreed over whether specifying the fast in one’s intention is obligatory, or whether a general resolve to fast suffices.
The majority—including the three imams Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, and Aḥmad—hold that specification is obligatory, whether one is observing the current Ramaḍān, making up a missed day, fulfilling a vow, performing an expiation, or offering a voluntary fast. If he does not specify, the fast is invalid, for the Prophet said, “Actions are only judged by intentions.” Intention was legislated to distinguish habit from worship and to differentiate the various kinds of worship from one another.
Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn explained: Intention follows knowledge. If a person knows that tomorrow is a day of Ramaḍān, specification is required; if he does not know that tomorrow is Ramaḍān, specification is not required.
The Ḥanafīs distinguish between two categories. First, fasts that remain a liability upon one’s person—such as making up missed days of Ramaḍān, expiations, and unspecified vows—do require a specific intention.
The second category covers fasts tied to a particular time: the ongoing fast of Ramaḍān, a vow whose time is fixed, or a voluntary fast restricted to a certain day. For these, no specific intention is required; rather—