Moreover, the days on which fasting is forbidden are excluded by religious law and are not valid days for fasting, just like the night and the days of menstruation. The Companions would not have asked him about fasting on those days when they already knew that fasting on them was invalid. Nor, had they been unaware of the prohibition, would he have answered them by saying, “He has neither fasted nor broken his fast,” for this does not explain that fasting on those days is forbidden.

His guidance, then, leaves no doubt that fasting every other day is better than fasting every day and more beloved to Allah. Fasting every day without interruption is disliked. Were it not disliked, one of three untenable conclusions would necessarily follow: either it would be better and more beloved to Allah than fasting every other day, because it involves more worship—but this is refuted by the authentic hadith, “The fasting most beloved to Allah is the fasting of David” (1), and by the statement that no fasting is better than it; or it would be equal to it in merit, which is also untenable; or it would be merely permissible, with fasting and not fasting being equally acceptable, neither recommended nor disliked. This too is untenable, since acts of worship are not of this nature: they must be either preferable or disfavoured. And Allah knows best.

If it is said: He said, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, “Whoever fasts Ramadan and follows it with six (2) days of Shawwāl, it is as though he has fasted every day” (3). He also said of someone who fasts three days of every month, “That is equivalent to fasting every day” (4). This indicates that fasting every day is better than the fasts equated with it, and that it is a practice