this applies only to a small number of years—about five or so. If, however, the period stretches to ten or fifteen years, then no make-up is required. That is Ibn Ḥabīb’s own explanation; it is neither transmitted from Mālik nor supported by sound legal reasoning, for a specification of this kind can be established only by explicit textual evidence. What is reliably preserved from Mālik is that anyone who reaches puberty while insane, or who was sound at puberty and then fell into insanity, and Ramadan passes during that state and he later recovers, must make up the fasts he missed—nothing more.
ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz said: “If a person attains puberty while insane, no make-up is due; but if he reaches puberty in sound health, then becomes insane and Ramadan elapses during his insanity, once he regains his reason he must make up the fast.”
Abū ʿUmar said: “My view is that the pen is lifted from the insane person until he recovers, and from the child until he experiences a seminal dream, as is firmly established from the Prophet ﷺ. Thus neither of them is obliged to fast when Ramadan comes while they are in that state; only when the insane person regains his reason and the child reaches puberty does the obligation begin. This is the position held by most transmitters. Fasting, prayer, and the other bodily obligations are not binding upon anyone who has not yet reached puberty.”
According to Mālik—may Allah have mercy on him—the signs of puberty in males are: a seminal emission, the appearance of coarse pubic hair, or reaching an age at which it is known that one would not arrive except after having had a seminal emission. For females the signs are: menstruation, a seminal emission, the appearance of pubic hair, pregnancy, or attaining an age at which it is generally presumed that she has reached maturity.
It is also related from Mālik that the ḥadd penalties are not to be enforced until pubic hair appears—unless the man has had a seminal emission, the woman has menstruated, or either of them has reached the requisite age.