leave.” This captures the wisdom of intention: it separates habit from worship and it distinguishes one form of devotion from another.

2 – For this very purpose—Allah knows best—fasting after the middle of Sha‘ban was prohibited, so that the fast of Ramadan would remain clearly distinct and independent. Another benefit may be to give the believer a short respite before Ramadan, so that he does not enter the obligatory fast weary and lethargic, but approaches it with eagerness and longing. This rationale does not contradict the two reports from ʿAʾishah and Umm Salamah that the Prophet fasted all—or most—of Sha‘ban, for people’s capacities for constant worship differ, and legal rulings are based on what is predominant.

3 – The prohibition is constrained by what is recorded in the two Ṣaḥīḥs from Abu Hurayrah: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Do not precede Ramadan by fasting one or two days, unless a man has a habitual fast; in that case let him fast.” Thus, whoever has an established routine of fasting and it happens to fall after the fifteenth of Sha‘ban may fast, for he is not included in the prohibition.

4 – The ban on fasting during the latter half of Sha‘ban applies to someone who begins fasting only after mid-month. If, however, he had started before the fifteenth and then continued until the end of the month, the prohibition does not apply to him. Otherwise it would clash with the report in al-Bukhari (1834) and Muslim (1957) from ʿAʾishah: “The Prophet never fasted a full month more often than Sha‘ban; indeed, he used to fast all of it.”

Scholarly disagreement
The scholars have differed: is the prohibition merely one of dislike (tanzīh) or of strict forbiddance (taḥrīm)?
• Many Shafiʿis hold that it is forbidden.
• Others, however, regard it as only disliked—and this is the better-known position in the school of Imam Ahmad—citing the report in the Musnad (25434) from Umm Salamah: “The Prophet…"