❀ Delaying the Qadā’ (Make-Up) Fasts of Ramaḍān is Permissible ❀
✍ Written by: Imran Ayyub Lahori
❖ It is Permissible to Delay the Missed Fasts of Ramaḍān
➊ ʿĀ’ishah رضي الله عنها narrated:
“I used to owe fasts from Ramaḍān but could not make them up except in Shaʿbān.”
📘 [Aḥmad: 6/124; Bukhārī: 1950, Kitāb al-Ṣawm: Bāb Matā Yuqḍā Qaḍāʾ Ramaḍān; Muslim: 1146; Abū Dāwūd: 2399; Tirmidhī: 783; Nasā’ī: 4/150; Ibn Mājah: 1669]
◈ Scholarly Views on Delaying the Qadā’ Fasts
✔ Imām al-Shawkānī رحمه الله states:
This ḥadīth proves the permissibility of delaying the qadā’ of Ramaḍān — whether due to a valid excuse or not.
📚 [Nayl al-Awṭār: 3/211]
✔ Imām al-Albānī رحمه الله writes:
What is correct is that it is obligatory to hasten to make up the missed fasts if one is capable, based on the Qur’anic verse:
وَسَارِعُوا إِلَىٰ مَغْفِرَةٍ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ
“And hasten to forgiveness from your Lord…”
📘 [Āl ʿImrān: 133]
📚 [Tamām al-Minnah: p. 421]
✔ Ibn Ḥazm رحمه الله is also of this view and interprets the ḥadīth of ʿĀ’ishah رضي الله عنها as being due to her inability (i.e., valid excuse).
📚 [al-Muḥallā: 6/260]
✔ Summary
✔ It is permissible to delay the make-up fasts of Ramaḍān.
✔ However, if one has the ability and opportunity, then it is better and more virtuous to make them up without delay.
✔ There is no sin upon one who delays the fasts — as long as they are made up before the next Ramaḍān arrives.
