✿ Fasting Every Day (Forever Fasting) Is Discouraged in Islam ✿
✍ Written by: Imran Ayyub Lahori
❖ ➊ Disapproval of Perpetual Fasting
ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr رضي الله عنه narrated that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
لا صام من صام الأبد
“The one who fasts perpetually has not (truly) fasted at all.”
📘 [Bukhārī: 1979, Kitāb al-Ṣiyām: Bāb Ṣawm Dāwūd; Muslim: 1159; Ibn Abī Shaybah: 3/78; Aḥmad: 2/164; Nasāʾī: 4/206]
❖ ➋ A Fasting That Negates Itself
Narrated by ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Shikhkhīr رضي الله عنه, the Prophet ﷺ said:
من صام الأبد فلا صام ولا أفطر
“Whoever fasts forever, it is as though he neither fasted nor broke his fast.”
📘 [Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Mājah: 1384, Kitāb al-Ṣiyām: Bāb Mā Jāʾa fī Ṣiyām al-Dahr; Ibn Mājah: 1705; Aḥmad: 4/24; Nasāʾī: 4/206; Ibn Khuzaymah: 2150; Ḥākim: 1/435]
❖ ➌ Warning Against Extremism in Worship
Three men considered the worship of the Prophet ﷺ to be insufficient for themselves. One of them said:
أصوم ولا أفطر
“I will fast continuously and never break my fast.”
When the Prophet ﷺ came to know of this, he said:
“I fast and I also break my fast…”
فمن رغب عن سنتي فليس مني
“Whoever turns away from my Sunnah is not from me.”
📘 [Bukhārī: 4776 – al-Bughā edition, Kitāb al-Nikāḥ: Bāb al-Targhīb fī al-Nikāḥ; Muslim: 1401]
❖ Summary of the Ruling
✔ Perpetual fasting (Ṣawm al-Dahr), i.e., fasting every single day without break, is makrūh (discouraged).
✔ The balanced way, as practiced and endorsed by the Prophet ﷺ, is to alternate fasting and breaking, such as the fast of Prophet Dāwūd عليه السلام — fasting every other day.
❌ Continuous fasting without pause is viewed as excessive and contrary to the Prophet’s Sunnah.
