Hadith Two
ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ—may Allah be pleased with him—said:
The Prophet ﷺ was told that I had declared, “By Allah, I shall certainly fast by day and stand in prayer by night for as long as I live.”
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ asked, “Are you the one who said that?”
I replied, “Yes, I did—may my father and mother be ransomed for you.”
He said, “You will not be able to keep that up. Fast and break the fast; sleep and stand in prayer; and observe three days of fasting each month. One good deed is rewarded tenfold, so that will be like fasting the whole year.”
I said, “I am able to do more than that.”
He said, “Then fast one day and break the fast for two.”
I said, “I am able to do better than that.”
He said, “Then fast one day and break the fast the next; that is the fast of David, peace be upon him, and it is the best form of fasting.”
I said, “I can do better than that.” He replied, “There is nothing better than that.”
In another wording he said, “No fast is superior to the fast of my brother David, who fasted half the days of the year; so fast one day and break the fast the next.”
General meaning
In summary, the Prophet ﷺ was informed that ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAmr had sworn never to break his fast by day and never to sleep at night for the rest of his life. The Prophet asked whether he had really said that, and he confirmed it. The Prophet told him that such rigor would overburden him and guided him to the optimal way: to fast on some days and eat on others, pray part of the night and sleep part of it, and fast three days each month, which—because every good deed counts tenfold—equals fasting the whole year.
Ibn ʿAmr replied that he could manage more, and he kept asking for a greater share of fasting until he reached the finest practice—the fast of David, peace be upon him: fasting one day and eating the next. Still eager for further increase, he was told, “There is no fast better than that.”
Points derived from the ḥadith
1- The eagerness of ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ for righteousness and his strength in pursuing it, as shown by his oath to fast every day and spend every night in prayer.
2- The Prophet’s ﷺ insight into a person’s capacity for worship and its long-term consequences. He informed ʿAbd Allah that he would not be able to sustain such strain—and so it proved, for in his later years ʿAbd Allah wished he had accepted from the Prophet ﷺ a practice he could maintain consistently and with ease.