This implies that delaying the breaking of the fast is disliked (1), so how much more so is forgoing it altogether? If it is disliked, it cannot be an act of worship, for the lowest degree of worship is that it be recommended.

The third view, which is the most balanced, is that continuous fasting is permissible from one pre-dawn period to the next. This is the view reliably transmitted from Ahmad and Ishāq, based on the hadith of Abū Sa‘īd al-Khudrī, who reported that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Do not practise continuous fasting. But whoever among you wishes to do so should continue only until the pre-dawn hours.” Al-Bukhārī reported it (2).

This is the most balanced form of continuous fasting and the easiest for the fasting person. In reality, it is equivalent to having his evening meal, only later. The fasting person has one meal over the course of a day and night; if he eats it in the pre-dawn hours, he has merely moved it from the beginning of the night to its end. And Allah knows best.

Section

His practice was to begin the Ramadan fast only upon a confirmed sighting of the crescent or the testimony of a single witness. Thus, he fasted on the testimony of Ibn ‘Umar (3), and on another occasion he fasted on the testimony of a Bedouin (4),