My father told me something, may Allah preserve him, one time. They live in Saudi Arabia, I went to visit them, and in the first night we stayed up late at night chatting, and of course when you are awake with family they bring food and you continue eating. So, the next day we prayed Fajr and we went to bed after Fajr—this is not a recommendation that you don’t sleep until Fajr but my father was there; I don’t see him for some time etcetera so we stayed awake until Fajr. And then in the morning we woke up and my brother said, “We will have a feast because you just came. We will have a good dinner and we will have a sheep slaughtered etcetera.” So by Dhuhr time we are still full, so I said to my brothers “When are you bringing the food?” They said that my father had left and most likely we will make the food after ʿAsr. So I said, that’s alright and I remember I couldn’t eat but I drank a sip of water, I remember that. Then my father came after Dhuhr and they said “Yes, we will put the food after Asr.” My father said, “Well, I have been eating during the whole night, I am fasting.” So they said “You are fasting, khalas, we will put the food after Maghrib.” I said “Allāh yahdīkum yā Abūya, Why didn’t you tell me? I could have fasted! Just now I lost the fast because of a sip of water. Why didn’t you tell me?” He said, “Well, it’s your fault.” Then he told me something, Wallāhi, it is profound. He told me, may Allah reward him,
“Don’t break your fast because of anyone. When the time of food comes and they offered it to you in front of you and you had started fasting, then you can break your fast. But to say ahh, because the food will come after Dhuhr and after ʿAsr and you intended to fast let me eat my breakfast or let me drink water – from now: don’t do that. Take it as an advice from me.”
And subḥānaAllāh, I have found when the person has that in his mind the food will be late. As Ibn al-Qayyim (rahimahullāh) said,
“When the person intends to do good deeds and he gets used to it Allāh will help him to do the good deeds. The good deeds will chase him.”
One time, subḥānaAllāh, after that a strange incident happened with my wife. It was the last day for her to fast the six days of Shawwāl and it was Friday. So I was leaving for Jumuʿah and she said “Some sisters will be coming to visit us so I will serve some food and really it will be embarrassing to tell them I am fasting, so khalas I will lose this sixth day, I will break my fast.” Then I told her about my father’s advice. I said, “When they come, then break your fast. But to break your fast from now, something might happen, and then you will regret it.” She said, “Do you think so? I will be fasting half of the day…” I said, “Wallāhi this is the advice of my father and it works.” So what she did, she continued fasting and she prepared the food for the guests. Six of them. I remember, six sisters. Wallāhi, my dear brothers and sisters, none of them came. Wallāhi, none of them came, all for different reasons. My wife said “Wallāhi, if I had broken my fast because of them and they did not come, Wallāhi I would call them one by one to tell them off. Alḥamdulillāh that I did not break my fast.” I told her “See, wallāhi,
this is golden advice.”
May Allāh reward my father. Once you put it in your mind, Allāh will help you. And you don’t need to, for example, fast Monday and Thursday only. You don’t need to fast on the 13th, 14th and 15th only. No, no, no. Let the ʿibādah be in your mind all the time, and don’t think twice before doing the ʿibādah. Just do it, because if you miss it you will regret that you did not do it.