580 – ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr (may Allah be pleased with them both) reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “He has not truly fasted who fasts forever.” Agreed upon. (1)
Muslim records, in the narration of Abū Qatādah (may Allah be pleased with him), the wording: “He neither fasted nor broke the fast.” (2)
Vocabulary of the ḥadīth
• “He has not fasted who fasts forever”: an optative sentence phrased as a statement—essentially a supplication against the doer, intended as a deterrent. Some scholars, however, consider it a plain declarative sentence: whoever fasts all the time becomes so accustomed to an eating pattern that mimics fasting that he no longer feels hunger or thirst, so it is as though he never fasted at all.
• al-abad: an indefinitely long span of time; its plurals are ābād and ubūd.
Lessons drawn from the ḥadīth
- The scholars have differed over the meaning of the Prophet’s words, “He has not fasted who fasts forever.”
– Some say it is a supplication against the perpetual faster, discouraging him from an exhausting, burdensome practice that prevents him from many acts of righteousness and goodness, and incapacitates him from fulfilling his duties toward himself, his family, those he supports, and others who hold obligatory or recommended rights over him.
– Others hold that it is a factual description of the state of such a person: in reality he has not fasted