Yahya said that he had heard Malik say that some one
who sees the new moon of Ramadan when he is on his own should start
the fast and not break it if he knows that that day is part of
Ramadan. He added, "Some one who sees the new moon of Shawwal when he
is on his own does not break the fast, because people suspect the
reliability of someone among them who breaks the fast. Such people
should say, when they sight the new moon, 'We have seen the new moon.'
Whoever sees the new moon of Shawwal during the day should not break
his fast but should continue fasting for the rest of that day. This is
because it is really the new moon of the night that is coming ."
Yahya said that he heard Malik say, "If people are fasting on the
day of Fitr thinking that it is still Ramadan and then definite
evidence comes to them that the new moon of Ramadan had been seen one
day before they began to fast and that they are now into the thirty-
first day, then they should break the fast on that day at whatever
time the news comes to them. However, they do not pray the id prayer
if they hear the news after the sun has begun to decline."
''Abd ar-Rahman went to visit A'isha and I accompanied him. He greeted
her and then said, 'Umm al-muminin, we were with Marwan ibn al Hakam
and someone mentioned to him that Abu Hurayra used to say that if some
one had begun the morning junub, he had broken the fast for that day.'
A'isha said, 'It is not as Abu Hurayra says Abd ar-Rahman. Do you
dislike what the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him
peace, used to do?', and Abd ar-Rahman said, 'No, by Allah.' A'isha
said, 'I bear witness that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him
and grant him peace, used to get up in the morning junub from
intercourse, not a dream, and would then fast for that day.' "
He continued, "Then we went and visited Umm Salama, and Abd ar-
Rahman asked her about the same matter and she said the same as A'isha
had said. Then we went off until we came to Marwan ibn al-Hakam Abd
ar-Rahman told him what they had both said and Marwan said, 'I swear
to you, Abu Muhammad, you must use the mount which is at the door, and
go to Abu Hurayra, who is on his land at al Aqiq, and tell him this.'
So Abd ar-Rahman rode off, and I went with him, until we came to Abu
Hurayra. Abd ar-Rahman talked with him for a while, and then mentioned
the matter to him, and Abu Hurayra said, 'I don't know anything about
it. I was just told that by someone.'"
His wife then went back to
Umm Salama and found the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and
grant him peace, with her. The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him
and grant him peace, said, "What's the matter with this woman?", and
Umm Salama told him. The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and
grant him peace, said, "Didn't you tell her that I do that myself?"
and she said, "I told her, and she went to her husband and told him,
but it only made him find fault all the more and say, 'We are not like
the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Allah
makes permissible for His Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him
peace, whatever He wishes.' " The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless
him and grant him peace, got angry and said, "By Allah, I am the one
with the most taqwa of Allah of you all, and of you all the one who
best knows His limits."
Yahya said that Malik said, "Someone who is travelling and knows that
he will be reaching his people in the first part of the day, and then
dawn breaks before he gets there, should be fasting when he gets
there."
Malik said, "Someone who intends to go away (on a
journey) in Ramadan, and then dawn breaks while he is still on his
land before he has left, should fast that day."
Malik said
that a man who returns from a journey in Ramadan and is not fasting
may have sexual intercourse with his wife if he wishes, if she is not
fasting and she has just become pure after her menses.
Malik said, "Cupping is only disapproved of
for some one who is fasting out of fear that he will become weak and
if it were not for that, it would not be disapproved of. I do not
think that a man who is cupped in Ramadan and does not break his fast,
owes anything, and I do not say that he has to make up for the day on
which he was cupped, because cupping is only disapproved of for
someone fasting if his fast is endangered. I do not think that someone
who is cupped, and is then well enough to keep the fast until evening,
owes anything, nor does he have to make up for that day."
Malik said, "This is what I like most out of what I
have heard about the matter."
Similarly, a woman who has to fast because
of having killed some one by mistake should not delay resuming her
fast when she has become pure after her period. She continues her fast
from where she left off.
No one who, by the Book of Allah,
has to fast for two consecutive months may break his fast except for a
reason - illness or menstruation. He must not travel and break his
fast."
Malik said, "This is the best that I have heard about
the matter."
Allah has permitted a traveller to break the fast when travelling, and
he has more strength for fasting than a sick man. Allah, the Exalted,
says in His book, 'Whoever among you is ill or on a journey (must
fast) a number of other days,' and Allah has thus permitted a
traveller to break his fast when on a journey, and he is more capable
of fasting than a sick man.
Malik said, "I have
heard the same thing from Sulayman ibn Yasar."
Malik said,
"If someone dies with an unfulfilled vow to free a slave or to fast or
to give sadaqa or to give away a camel, and makes a bequest that his
vow should be fulfilled from his estate, then the sadaqa or the gift
of the camel are taken from one third of his estate. Preference is
given to it over other bequests, except things of a similar nature,
because by his vow it has become incumbent on him, and this is not the
case with something he donates voluntarily. They (vows and voluntary
donations) are settled from a limited one-third of his estate, and not
from the whole of it, since if the dying man were free to dispose of
all of his estate, he might delay settling what had become incumbent
on him (i.e. his vows), so that when death came and the estate passed
into the hands of his heirs, he would have bequeathed such things
(i.e. his vows) that were not claimed by anyone (like debts). If that
(i.e. to dispose freely of his property) were allowed him, he would
delay these things (i.e. his vows) until when he was near death, he
would designate them and they might take up all of his estate. He must
not do that."
Malik said, "According to what we think, and
Allah knows best, what he was referring to when he said, 'That's an
easy matter' was making up the fast, and how slight the effort
involved was and how easy it was. He was saying (in effect), 'We will
fast another day in its place.' "
Yahya said that he had heard Malik say, about some one who made up the
days he had missed in Ramadan separately, that he did not have to
repeat them. (What he had done) was enough for him. It was, however,
preferable, if he did them consecutively.
Malik said,
"Whoever eats or drinks thoughtlessly or forgetfully in Ramadan or
during any other obligatory fast that he must do, has to fast another
day in its place."
Malik said, "What I like most is what Allah has specified in the
Qur'an, that is, that they are fasted consecutively."
Malik
was asked about a woman who began the day fasting in Ramadan and
though it was outside of the time of her period, fresh blood (i.e. not
menstrual blood) flowed from her. She then waited until evening to see
the same, but did not see anything.Then, on the next day in the
morning she had anotherflow, though less than the first. Then, some
days before her period, the flow stopped completely. Malik was asked
what she should do about her fasting and prayer, and he said, "This
blood is like menstrual blood. When she sees it she should break her
fast, and then make up the days she has missed. Then, when the blood
has completely stopped, she should do ghusl and fast."
Malik
was asked whether someone who became muslim on the last day of Ramadan
had to make up all of Ramadan or whether he just had to make up the
day when he became muslim, and he said, "He does not have to make up
any of the days that have passed. He begins fasting from that day
onwards. What I like most is that he makes up the day on which he
became muslim."
Malik said, "I do not consider that to
do so is obligatory, but what I like most is that a man does the fast
when he is strong enough. Whoever pays compensation gives one mudd of
food in place of every day, using the mudd of the Prophet, may Allah
bless him and grant him peace."
Malik said, "The people of knowledge
consider that she has to make up for each day of the fast that she
misses as Allah, the Exalted and Glorified, says, 'And whoever of you
is sick or on a journey should fast an equal number of other days, '
and they consider her pregnancy and her concern for her child as a
sickness."
Yahya related to me from Malik
that he had heard the same thing from Said ibn Jubayr.
Malik said, "This
is what we do, and what I have seen the people of knowledge in our
city doing."
Yahya said that he heard Malik
say, about fasting for six days after breaking the fast at the end of
Ramadan, that he had never seen any of the people of knowledge and
fiqh fasting them. He said, "I have not heard that any of our
predecessors used to do that, and the people of knowledge disapprove
of it and they are afraid that it might become a bida and that common
and ignorant people might join to Ramadan what does not belong to it,
if they were to think that the people of knowledge had given
permission for that to be done and were seen doing it.
Yahya
said that he heard Malik say, "I have never heard any of the people of
knowledge and fiqh and those whom people take as an example forbidding
fasting on the day of jumua. Fasting on it is good, and I have seen
one of the people of knowledge fasting it, and it seemed to me that he
was keen to do so."