Islamic Fiqh > Fasting > Ramadan: fasting, rules and dispensations > Making up the fast and special cases
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Updated on 27 September 2026 at 3:52 AM
The sheets on this page deal with making up (qada) the fast of Ramadan as the four schools debate it: the exclusion of the fidya, scattered or consecutive making up, voluntary fasting before making up, sharing the intention between making up and voluntary fasting, then the case of one who dies leaving a owed fast.
Each opinion is reported as the sheet assigns it, with the hadiths, their grades and the works referenced.
The sheet first specifies: if the time of making up is fixed, the fixing is by discretionary ruling; and the view requiring the fidya is void, for the fidya is due only in compensation for the fast of one permanently incapable, whose ability is no longer hoped for, like the old man in his decline; here there is no incapacity, since he is able to make up: requiring the fidya therefore has no meaning (al-Bada'i' 2/104; Hashiyat Ibn Abidin 2/423).
The four imams agree that making up the month of Ramadan is valid scattered, and that consecutiveness is finer, by the generality of the word of Allah:
A number of other days.
Surah al-Baqara, 184
That fast, indeed, is tied to no specific time, so consecutiveness is not required in it, like the absolute vow. Consecutiveness remains finer, for it holds haste in discharging the obligatory and eagerness to lift what is owed (al-Ifsah 1/416; al-Mudawwana al-Kubra 1/188; Sharh Fath al-Qadir 2/353-354; al-'Inaya 2/354; Bilghat as-Salik 1/691; al-Majmu' 7/616; al-Mughni 4/214).
The jurists of the four schools differ over one who owes days of Ramadan: may he fast voluntarily before making up what he owes?
The Hanafis, the Malikis on one view and the Hanbalis on one narration hold that voluntary fasting before making up is allowed, without dislike: for making up is not owed immediately, being a worship tied to a wide time; so voluntary fasting in its time is allowed, like the voluntary prayer at the start of its time. Al-Kasani writes: our companions hold that one who owes the making up of Ramadan is not disliked to fast voluntarily; had the obligation been immediate, voluntary fasting before making up would have been disliked, as it would delay the obligatory beyond its restricted time, which is disliked (al-Bada'i' 2/104; al-Bahr ar-Ra'iq 2/307; Hashiyat Ibn Abidin 2/423; al-Mughni 4/209; al-Furu' 3/96; al-Mubdi' 3/57; Kashshaf al-Qina' 2/386).
The Malikis on the preponderant view with them, the Shafi'is and the Hanbalis on one view hold that voluntary fasting before making up is disliked. Ibn Rushd reports that Malik was asked about the man who owes the making up of Ramadan: should he fast the day of Ashura before making up? He said: that does not please me, and perhaps he would be light. He was told: should he fast it as making up? He said: no harm. Muhammad ibn Rushd comments: his words, that does not please me and perhaps he would be light, mean a light dislike; his disliking the voluntary fast of Ashura implies that the preferable course with him is to fast it as making up; yet his later words, no harm in fasting it as making up, contradict that: no harm is said of a permitted act, whose doing and leaving are equal, not of a recommended one; and in the narration of Ibn Wahb he is asked: should he fast it as making up? He said: no, meaning: it does not suit him, and fasting it voluntarily is finer. Three views emerge: the preferable is to fast it as making up; the preferable is to fast it voluntarily and delay the making up; or the two are equal and the agent chooses. That difference is conceivable only on the view that making up Ramadan admits delay, by the word of Aisha: if fasting Ramadan were upon me, I could not fast it until Sha'ban came, being busy with the Messenger of Allah; had making up been immediate, that occupation would not have stopped her; and what is owed with delay is better hastened. If he fasts Ashura voluntarily while delaying the making up, he gains the day's virtue and loses the haste of making up; if he fasts it as making up, he gains the haste and loses the day's virtue: hence the difference. What grounds the first view: the virtue of Ashura is established by texts of the Prophet that mention it and quantify it, while the virtue of delaying making up is known only by reasoning; likewise it is reported that the Messenger of Allah prayed the two rak'as of fajr after sunrise, before the subh prayer, while the making up of prayer is immediate: all the more that of the fast, which admits delay. What grounds the second view: if he fasts voluntarily, death may come before the making up, and the voluntary act would not be accepted from him, per the word reported from Abu Bakr as-Siddiq: no voluntary act is accepted from anyone while he carries an obligation he has not discharged. And what grounds the third: the proofs are equal, and their equality signals choice, like the rule of camels beyond one hundred twenty-one, where the agent is left to choose once the proofs on the extra portion have become equal.
The apparent sense of the book of fasting in al-Mudawwana is that making up is immediate: for its author treats the one who broke the fast in Ramadan for travel or illness, returned, stayed a month or regained health for a month, then died bequeathing that one be fed for him: the feeding is then assessed at a third; and likewise if, having regained health for a month, he fell ill for all of Sha'ban, the feeding is due from him; hence he may not fast Ashura voluntarily if he owes making up: the question thus carries four views (al-Bayan wa-t-Tahsil 2/325-327).
Al-Hattab writes: voluntary fasting before a vow or making up is disliked for one who carries a vow of fasting or the making up of Ramadan; that applies to the vow not fixed in time; as for the fixed vow, when its moment comes, fasting anything else is no longer permitted: if he does it, he sins and making up is due from him (Mawahib al-Jalil, 2/417). It is understood from this that voluntary fasting before a fixed vow, before its moment comes, is not disliked, and that is the apparent sense. The sheet's first caution: every obligatory fast is, in the sense of a vow, a bound fast; the second: per the Tiraz, if he fasts voluntarily, his fast is valid; Ibn Nafi' writes in al-Majmu'a that his voluntary fast is complete and he then makes up what he owes, and an error was objected to him: for the time serves the voluntary and the making up alike, and whichever occurs is valid; the making up is simply more binding. Three views are related in al-Bayan about the certain voluntary fast such as Ashura: is making up Ramadan preferable and its voluntary fast disliked, as in the narration of Ibn Wahb, or is the agent left to choose? Below that, for the non-certain voluntary fast, the dislike of fasting before making up is explicitly reported. In al-Mudawwana: making up Ramadan in the first ten days of Dhul-Hijja is permitted; Abu l-Hasan reports Umar ibn al-Khattab recommended making up Ramadan in the ten days of Dhul-Hijja; Ibn al-Qasim and Salim say: he may also make it up on the day of Ashura; and Ibn Yunus: they recommended that for the day's virtue; absent any voluntary intention, he discharges the obligatory in those days (Mawahib al-Jalil, 2/417).
Al-Kharashi writes: voluntary fasting before a vow or making up, that is, among the disliked is voluntary worship, in fasting, prayer or other, performed before the liability is discharged of an obligation of that kind, whether an unfixed vow or making up: for the liability is held by that obligation and hastens toward its discharge; if he does it, his voluntary fast is valid, no time being fixed to either, then he performs what he owes; the fixed vow, however, excludes the unfixed: at its moment nothing else is permitted, and if he does it, making up is due; before its moment, voluntary fasting is not disliked, the liability not being occupied by that obligation (Sharh Mukhtasar Khalil, 2/245). Ad-Dasuqi writes: voluntary fasting is disliked for one who carries an obligatory fast, a vow, making up or expiation, due to the delay of the obligatory and the absence of immediacy; unlike the prayer, where it is forbidden, as has come. The author's apparent sense is the dislike absolutely, whether the voluntary fast placed before the obligatory is unstressed or stressed, like Ashura and the ninth of Dhul-Hijja; and that is the preponderant view. Ibn Rushd, per Ibn Arafa, treated the fast of the day of Arafat for one who owes making up: the view that fasting it as making up is sounder and better and that fasting it voluntarily is disliked is the soundest, being the first narration of Ibn al-Qasim, chosen by Sahnun; the opposite view is the narration of Ibn Wahb; and the view of their equality is the last narration of Ibn al-Qasim. Know also that one who owes making up for two Ramadans begins with the first, and the reverse is valid, per al-Mawwaq (Hashiyat ad-Dusuqi with ash-Sharh al-Kabir, 1/518-519).
Ash-Shirbini writes: one missing days of Ramadan is urged to make them up consecutively, and one who owes the making up of Ramadan is disliked to fast voluntarily, as al-Jurjani said (Mughni al-Muhtaj, 2/228). Shihab ad-Din ar-Ramli follows his master al-Jurjani: voluntary fasting is disliked for one who owes the making up of Ramadan, as that fast is disliked for the one whose excuse broke his fast in Ramadan, for it negates what preceded, unless understood as two-faced, or applied to one with no making up owed, like the child reaching puberty and the convert from disbelief; for one owing making up: if he leaves the six days of Shawwal for that, making them up after Shawwal is a sunna, and the sunna is gained even scattered, but their consecutiveness and their joining the festival day is finer, through haste in worship and the harms of delay; and if he fasts in Shawwal a making up, a vow or other, or a day such as Ashura, the reward of the voluntary comes to him, as al-Walid gave fatwa, following al-Barizi, al-Asfuni, an-Nashiri, the jurist Ali ibn Salih al-Hadrami and others; but the complete reward, attached to the sought object, does not come to him, above all the one who missed Ramadan and fasted Shawwal in its place, for the meaning does not apply to him; and al-Walid also gave fatwa that, for one who missed Ramadan and fasted Shawwal in its place, fasting six days of Dhul-Qa'da is recommended, for making up the regular fast is recommended; a word applicable to one intending those days after fasting Shawwal, which would turn the sunna away from being gained; the claim of its unattainability holds only if their fasting is not gained without it; yet it is gained, and that is the apparent sense: so making them up is not recommended (Nihayat al-Muhtaj, 3/239-240).
The Hanbalis hold, in the school, that voluntary fasting before making up an obligatory fast, making up Ramadan or a vow, is unlawful, and that voluntary fasting is not valid before he makes up what he owes of Ramadan: the narration of Hanbal states it explicitly, he begins with the obligatory until he has made it up, and if he carries a vow, he fasts it after the obligatory, by the word reported from Abu Hurayra and raised to the Prophet:
Whoever reaches Ramadan carrying something of Ramadan and does not make it up: it will not be accepted from him; and whoever fasts voluntarily while carrying something of Ramadan unmade up: it will not be accepted from him until he fasts it.
weak hadith, reported by the imam Ahmad in al-Musnad (8606)
As well as because it is a worship into which money enters as compensation, like the hajj: the voluntary is not valid before discharging its obligatory; and because it is a worship whose delay is permitted by way of relief: if he does not discharge it, the origin remains (al-Mughni 4/209; al-Furu' 3/96; al-Mubdi' 3/57; Kashshaf al-Qina' 2/386). Al-Mardawi writes: may he who owes an obligatory fast observe a voluntary fast before it? Two narrations, both cited in al-Hidaya, al-Mughni, al-Majd's commentary, ash-Sharh, al-Furu' and al-Fa'iq. The first: it is neither allowed nor valid, and this is the school, stated explicitly in the narration of Hanbal; in the two Hawi: it is not valid on the sounder of the two narrations; chosen by Ibn Abdus in his Tadhkira, stated in the school, in Masbuk adh-Dhahab, al-Ifadat, al-Munwar, al-Mustaw'ab, al-Khulasa, al-Muharrar and the two Ri'ayat, and by Ibn Razin in his commentary; it is unique to the school. The second narration: it is allowed and valid, advanced in an-Nazm; in the eleventh rule it is said: allowed on the soundest view; and al-Mardawi concludes: that is the correct one. On the school, which is the non-permission: is making up in the ten days of Dhul-Hijja disliked, or not? Two narrations; the correct is absence of dislike. And another way, said by some companions: if one holds that the voluntary before the obligatory fast is not allowed, making up in the ten days of Dhul-Hijja is not disliked, rather recommended, so as not to be left wholly without worship; and if one holds permission, making up in those days is disliked, to reserve them for the voluntary, given their virtue along with that of making up; in the two Ri'ayat and the two Hawi, making up Ramadan in the ten days of Dhul-Hijja is permitted, though disliked; and in al-Kubra: voluntary fasting before discharging the obligatory is unlawful, stated explicitly, while others say it is allowed. Useful: if a legal obligation and a vow meet, one begins with the legal obligatory, unless the vow is feared lost; and making up also precedes if the vow is absolute (al-Insaf, 3/350-351).
The jurists differ over sharing the intention in fasting: fasting, say, six days of Shawwal or the ten of Dhul-Hijja with the intention of making up what he owes, is it valid? Do the two intentions both stand, does one fall, or does the fast count for neither?
The Hanafis say: if one forms in the fast the intention of making up and of the voluntary, it will be voluntary and will not suffice for making up, per the imam Muhammad ibn al-Hasan; the imam Abu Yusuf says: it suffices for making up and the voluntary falls; and it is reported from
Abu Hanifa through al-Hasan: for the obligatory is stronger and drives out the intention of the lesser, like one who forms the intention of the obligatory pilgrimage and the voluntary. The Hanafi source illustrates the question with zakat: whoever gives five in charity intending zakat and the voluntary: zakat with Abu Yusuf, voluntary with Muhammad, whose reason is that the two intentions clash, the fixing falls through the clash, and there remains charity with an absolute intention, falling on the voluntary, the lesser, certainly intended; while Abu Yusuf reasons: when two aims clash, the stronger is applied, the obligatory, as when two proofs clash (al-Bahr ar-Ra'iq 2/39; al-Ashbah wa-n-Naza'ir of Ibn Nujaym 41; Hashiyat Ibn Abidin 2/18).
The Malikis and the Shafi'is hold the permission of sharing, joining the intention of making up and of the voluntary: fasting the six days intending to discharge the debt and gain the reward of the voluntary. Az-Zarqani notes: whoever fasts the day of Arafat for a making up he owes, intending the making up and Arafat together: the apparent sense is that both are discharged together, by analogy with one who forms, in his major ablution, the intention of major impurity and of Friday, both discharged, or in his prayer, the obligatory and the greeting; likewise for Ashura and Tasu'a and the like (Hashiyat az-Zarqani, 2/241). Ad-Dasuqi adds: from this question is drawn the validity of intending the fast of Ashura for the virtue and the making up, and Ibn Arafa inclined to it; drawn also that whoever pronounces a single formula of consecration intending ihram and bowing, it suffices; and whoever pronounces a single salutation intending the obligatory and the return, it suffices, as Ibn Rushd said (Hashiyat ad-Dusuqi 1/133; Hashiyat as-Sawi on ash-Sharh as-Saghir 1/298).
Among the Shafi'is, ar-Ramli repeats: if he fasts in Shawwal a making up, a vow or other, or a day such as Ashura, the reward of the voluntary comes to him, as al-Walid gave fatwa following al-Barizi, al-Asfuni, an-Nashiri, the jurist Ali ibn Salih al-Hadrami and others; but the complete reward, attached to the sought object, does not come to him, above all the one who missed Ramadan and fasted Shawwal in its place, for the meaning does not apply to him (Nihayat al-Muhtaj, 3/239-240). Shihab ad-Din ar-Ramli was asked about a man who owes the fast of Ramadan and makes it up in Shawwal: does he gain both the making up of Ramadan and the reward of the six days of Shawwal, and is there a transmission? He answered: his fast discharges the making up of Ramadan even if he intends something else by it, and he gains the reward of the six days of Shawwal; the question has been mentioned by a group of the later scholars (Fatawa ar-Ramli, 1/197). And in the gloss of ash-Sharqani on the commentary of the Tahrir: if he fasts in Shawwal a making up of Ramadan or of something else, a vow or another voluntary, the reward of the voluntary comes to him, for all turns on the existence of the fast of six days of Shawwal; but the complete reward attached to the sought object comes only with the intention of fasting precisely the six days of Shawwal, above all for the one who missed Ramadan: for it is not true of him that he fasted Ramadan and followed it with six days of Shawwal (Hashiyat ash-Sharqani 'ala at-Tahrir, 1/474).
The Hanbalis, in the school, along with Ibn Hazm, who reports the early scholars, hold that sharing the intention between the obligatory fast and the voluntary is not valid: fasting the making up of Ramadan in the ten days of Dhul-Hijja, for example, yields neither the reward of making up nor of the voluntary. Ibn Muflih writes: making up Ramadan in the ten days of Dhul-Hijja is allowed, though disliked; the second narration: disliked, on the reasoning that making up in those days loses the virtue of their voluntary fast, as the imam Ahmad and others reasoned; Ibn Rajab mentions it in al-Lata'if and says: it is also said the virtue of voluntary fasting is gained by it (al-Furu' 3/98; al-Insaf 3/351). Ibn Rajab specifies: that, per whoever says that one who vows a month of fasting and fasts Ramadan discharges both the obligatory and the vow; the foundation is that it is not valid, and per another view the reward is gained, so sharing is allowed on that view; on the school, it is not valid (Lata'if al-Ma'arif, 266). Ibn Hazm, for his part, decides: whoever mixes the intention of an obligatory fast with another obligatory, with a voluntary, with zakat, with hajj, with 'umra or with a manumission, nothing of all that counts for him and the whole act falls, except joining the 'umra to the hajj for one in ihram carrying only the sacrificial animal; the proof is the word of Allah:
They were commanded only to worship Allah, making the religion sincerely His.
Surah al-Bayyina, 5
Sincerity is purifying the commanded act for the sole cause for which Allah commanded it; and the Messenger of Allah said: whoever performs a deed outside our order, it is rejected; mixing one act with another is performing a deed outside the order of Allah and His Messenger, a false and rejected act. That is the view of Malik, ash-Shafi'i, Abu Sulayman and their companions; Abu Yusuf says that in prayer, fasting, zakat and hajj the obligatory is discharged and the voluntary falls; and Muhammad ibn al-Hasan: prayer falls entirely, zakat and fasting become voluntary, and hajj discharges the obligatory; and the school shares none of these views. It is reported from Mujahid: one upon whom lies the vow of two consecutive months may fast Sha'ban and Ramadan, and it suffices, meaning the obligatory and the vow; and Mujahid says: one who owes the making up of Ramadan and fasts voluntarily, it is his making up, even if he does not intend it (al-Muhalla, 6/174).
First case: one who delayed the making up of Ramadan, like the vow and the expiation, for an excuse that persisted until death: ongoing illness, travel, fainting, menstruation, bleeding after childbirth, pregnancy or nursing; nothing is due from him, no one fasts on his behalf and no one is fed for him, and this by the agreement of the four schools: for it is an obligation he could not discharge until death, and its ruling falls like that of the hajj. Among the Hanbalis, a narration provides that one be fed for him, as for the very old man; and Abu l-Khattab says: it is possible that fasting on his behalf or compensation be due, but the school is on the first view (al-Majmu' 7/618, 626; Rawdat at-Talibin 2/364; al-Insaf 3/334; al-Furu' 3/69; al-Bada'i' 2/654).
Second case: one who broke the fast for an excuse, then the excuse vanished, he could make up and did not make up until his death. The jurists differ: is one fed for him, with no permission to fast on his behalf, or is fasting on his behalf allowed? The majority of jurists, Hanafis, Malikis, Shafi'is on the sahih view of the school, and Hanbalis in the school, hold that feeding one poor person for each day is due from his estate, and that his guardian's fasting on his behalf is not valid: for that fast is obligatory by the origin of the law, it is not made up by delegation, representation having no place during life, and so neither after death, like the prayer.
Ash-Shafi'i in the old school, which is al-Nawawi's choice, and Abu l-Khattab among the Hanbalis, hold that his guardian may fast on his behalf, that this is valid, discharges the feeding and releases the deceased's liability; but nothing binds the guardian, the choice is his, by the hadith of Aisha: the Prophet said:
Whoever dies carrying a fast, his guardian fasts for him.
reported by al-Bukhari (1952) and Muslim (1147)
The Hanbalis add: whoever dies carrying a vowed fast, his guardian fasts on his behalf on the sahih view of the school, and that is al-Nawawi's choice among the Shafi'is. Al-Insaf specifies: it is recommended for the guardian to do it. Know finally: if he leaves an estate, it is due, and it is recommended for the guardian to fast, or to pay from the estate one poor person per day to whoever fasts for him; if he leaves no estate, nothing binds him (al-Insaf 3/336-337; al-Bada'i' 2/654; al-Jawhara an-Nayyira 1/143; Maraqi al-Falah 375; Jawahir al-Iklil 1/163; Mawahib al-Jalil 2/543; al-Muntaqa 2/271; ash-Sharh as-Saghir 1/721; al-Majmu' 7/618, 627; al-Ifsah 1/415).
The Hanbalis and al-Nawawi cite the following.
The hadith of Ibn Abbas: a man came to the Prophet and said: Messenger of Allah, my mother died carrying the fast of a month, in a version the fast of a vow; shall I make it up for her? He said: yes; the debt of Allah deserves more to be discharged (reported by al-Bukhari (1953) and Muslim (1148)). The hadith of Burayda: as I sat with the Messenger of Allah, a woman came and said: I gave charity on behalf of my mother, a slave girl, and she has died; he said: you have your reward, and the inheritance has returned it to you; she said: she carried the fast of a month, shall I fast for her? He said: fast for her, and the hadith continues (reported by Muslim (1149)). And the hadith of Ibn Abbas: a woman took to the sea and vowed that, if Allah saved her, she would fast a month; Allah saved her, she did not fast until she died; her daughter or her sister came to the Messenger of Allah, and he ordered her to fast for her (reported by Abu Dawud (3308), a sahih hadith).
Ibn Qudama then lays the rule: whoever vows to fast and dies before performing it, his heirs among his relatives fast for him; and the same applies to every vow of obedience: hajj, fasting, charity, manumission, retreat, prayer or other; the guardian performs it for the deceased. From Ahmad, on prayer: no prayer is performed for the deceased, for nothing replaces it in any case; the other acts, the guardian may substitute for him, without its being obligatory, by way of recommendation and kindness. Ibn Abbas thus gave fatwa that a woman who had vowed to walk to Quba and died without performing it be replaced by her daughter, who walks for her; and Abd al-Karim ibn Abi Umayya asked Ibn Abbas about a vow of retreat weighing on his mother: fast for her and make the retreat for her. And Aisha made the retreat for her brother Abd ar-Rahman after his death. Malik said: no one walks in another's place, nor prays nor fasts for him, and likewise every bodily deed, by analogy with the prayer.
Ash-Shafi'i says: the hajj is made up for him; the prayer is not made up, by one view alone; and the fast is not made up on either view: one feeds a poor person for each day, by Ibn Umar: the Messenger of Allah said: whoever dies carrying the fast of a month, let a poor person be fed for him in place of each day (reported by Ibn Majah). The partisans of the apparent text say making up is obligatory on the guardian, per the literal sense of the reports; and the mass of the people of knowledge hold it is not obligatory on the guardian, unless it is a right over money and the deceased leaves an estate; the Prophet's command is then understood as recommendation, from the clues of the report: the Prophet likened making up to debt, and the deceased's debt is not obligatory on the heir if he leaves no estate; and the questioner asked whether the act should be done or not, and the answer varies with the aim of the question: if it asked about permission, the command means permission, as in: shall we pray in the sheepfolds? he answered: pray in the sheepfolds; if it asked about sufficiency, the command means sufficiency; if it asked about obligation, the command means obligation, as in: shall we do wudu from the flesh of camels? he answered: do wudu from the flesh of camels; here the question asked about sufficiency, and the Prophet's command to act means that. In support of fasting on behalf of the deceased: Aisha reports the Messenger of Allah said: whoever dies carrying a fast, his guardian fasts for him; and Ibn Abbas: a man came to the Prophet and said: my mother died carrying a fast, shall I fast for her? He said: do you see, if your mother had a debt, would you discharge it? He said: yes. He said: the debt of Allah deserves more to be discharged; and in a wording a woman asked and he said: fast for your mother; a hadith cited by al-Bukhari and Muslim. And Ibn Abbas reports that Sa'd ibn Ubada al-Ansari asked the Prophet about a vow weighing on his mother, who died before discharging it; he gave him fatwa to discharge it, and it became sunna afterward.
The making up of Ramadan may be scattered over the year, though grouping it is finer; voluntary fasting before making up is allowed with two schools and disliked with the other two; sharing the intention between the six days of Shawwal and the making up is valid with the Malikis and the Shafi'is; and whoever dies leaving days to make up has a poor person fed per day from his estate, while his guardian may fast on his behalf per al-Nawawi's choice, above all if the missed days stem from a vow.