They deemed it disliked because of the report that the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—said:

“There is to be no fasting after the middle of Shaʿbān until Ramadan.”

Those who allowed it argued from what is narrated on the authority of Umm Salamah, who said:

“I never saw the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—fast two consecutive months except Shaʿbān and Ramadan,”

and from what is related from Ibn ʿUmar:

“The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—would join Shaʿbān to Ramadan.”

Al-Ṭaḥāwī recorded these reports.

As for the second pillar, the intention, I know of no one who dispenses with intention in a voluntary fast; they differed only about the time at which it must be formed, as previously mentioned.

The third pillar—abstinence from the things that break the fast—is identical to the abstinence required in an obligatory fast, and whatever points of disagreement arise there apply here as well.

Regarding the ruling on breaking a voluntary fast, they are unanimous that if a person begins a voluntary fast and then breaks it for a legitimate excuse, no makeup is required. They disagreed, however, when it is broken deliberately without excuse: Mālik and Abū Ḥanīfah held that a makeup fast is obligatory, whereas al-Shāfiʿī and a number of scholars maintained that no makeup is due.

The cause of their disagreement is the divergence of the transmitted reports. Mālik narrated that Ḥafṣah and ʿĀʾishah, the wives of the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—began the day fasting voluntarily; food was then offered to them and they broke their fast with it. The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—said: “Make up another day in its place.”

This is countered by the ḥadīth of Umm Hānī, who said: “On the day of the Conquest, the Conquest of Mecca, Fāṭimah came and sat on the left of the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—while I sat on his right. A young maid brought a vessel containing a drink and handed it to him; he drank from it, then offered it to me and I drank. I said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, I have broken my fast even though I was fasting…’”