568 – ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her) said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ would fast until we thought he would never break his fast, and he would refrain from fasting until we thought he would never fast. I never saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ complete the fast of an entire month except Ramadan, and I never saw him fast in any month more than he did in Shaʿbān.” Agreed upon, and the wording is that of Muslim. (1)

Vocabulary of the ḥadīth
• ḥattā: a preposition meaning “up to / until.” The verb that follows it is made subjunctive by an implied an, and the an plus the present-tense verb form a verbal noun governed by ḥattā, i.e., “until our saying … .”

Lessons derived from the ḥadīth
1 – The Prophet ﷺ would sometimes fast many consecutive days so that people assumed he would not break his fast at all, yet he never completed the fast of a whole month other than Ramadan. At other times he would go days on end without fasting, so that people assumed he would not fast again.

2 – His reason for sometimes stringing fasts together and at other times stringing days of non-fasting together was his ﷺ careful regard for benefit. When he found a period in which his responsibilities were lighter, he fasted; but when his schedule was filled with the Muslims’ public affairs, he preferred to eat and devote himself fully to them. This shows that his fasting or refraining was not tied to any particular time or month.

3 – With regard to the month of Shaʿbān, he ﷺ would fast in it more than in any other month. This may have been out of reverence for Ramadan and its fast, making the fasting of Shaʿbān like the regular sunnah performed before an obligatory prayer, and perhaps—