when fasting is prohibited. Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam relates from him that he said: “There is no harm in keeping an unbroken sequence of fasts provided one breaks the fast on the Day of Fitr, the Day of Sacrifice, and the Days of Tashrīq, because the Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade fasting on those days. It is likewise permissible to fast on a Friday, and on any of the other Fridays, and it is permissible to fast on the Day of ʿArafah—although for the pilgrim it is preferable to break the fast so that he has the strength to make supplication. Fasting on ʿĀshūrāʾ is recommended and encouraged, and the same encouragement and merit apply to fasting the Day of ʿArafah for those who are not at ʿArafah.

Whoever undertakes a voluntary fast and begins the day in a state of fasting is obliged to complete it. Should he break it deliberately, he must make it up; but if he breaks it because of illness, menstruation, or forgetfulness, he bears no liability—although the one who forgot must still refrain for the remainder of the day from eating, drinking, and marital relations.

Fasting on Mondays and Thursdays is recommended on account of the reports concerning them, and fasting three days of every month is praiseworthy. Mālik was not familiar with the specific practice of fasting the so-called “white days”—the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth—and he strongly disapproved of fasting six days at the beginning of Shawwāl. If someone begins a voluntary fast while resident and then travels and breaks it, or begins it while travelling and then breaks it, there are two reports from Mālik: in one he must make it up, and in the other he does not. Analogy supports the latter, but as a precaution it is better for him to make it up.