I say: It is clear to the discerning jurist that the exception cited entails two violations. The first is disregard for the explanatory and restrictive narrations, which permit fasting it only when joined with a day before or after it. The other is the unrestricted prohibition against singling out Friday for fasting. It is well known that an unrestricted text remains unrestricted unless something comes to qualify it; and once it has been qualified, it is not permissible to go beyond that qualification. Nor is it valid here to qualify the prohibition on the basis of reports concerning the virtue of fasting a particular day—such as the Day of Arafah, Ashura, or the White Days—for this conflicts with the principle that what prohibits takes precedence over what permits. An example is fasting Monday or Thursday when it coincides with Eid al-Fitr or one of the days of Eid al-Adha: it is not to be fasted, not because of a prohibition specific to that particular case, but in application of the principle just mentioned. The matter under discussion is of the same kind.

I wrote this—as a clarification and in discharge of scholarly responsibility—when the Saudi government announced that the Day of Arafah would fall on a Friday during the 1411 AH Hajj season. People became uncertain about fasting it, and questions came to me from every country, especially from some students of knowledge in Algeria. I would answer them with the substance of what has preceded. Some of them then referred me to al-Hafiz’s statement, so I explained the matter to him in detail along these lines and reminded him of some of the narrations that al-Hafiz himself had cited. One of them reads: “...Friday alone, unless it is among days fasted along with it.” A supporting narration reads: “Unless it is one of the days.” Thus, the permission mentioned by al-Hafiz conflicts with the principle and the qualification just stated.

On this occasion, I also say that there is another hadith resembling this one, in that it likewise contains a prohibition together with an exception. It is the Prophet’s statement, peace and blessings be upon him: “Do not fast on Saturday except what has been made obligatory upon you...” This hadith is unquestionably authentic, and I documented it in al-Irwa (no. 960). It has caused confusion for many people, both earlier and later. I have encountered severe opposition concerning it from some of the learned, let alone the general public. I treat it in the same way as the hadith on Friday: it is not permissible to add to it any qualification besides that of obligation, as some say: “Except for one who has a customary fasting practice, or