It so happened that I became sick and I vowed that if I was healed from it, I would fast fifteen days for Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, but I did not specify any particular time. I recovered, praise be to Allah, and I started to fast in the month of Rajab. I fasted five days, and I got tired; then I fasted five days in Sha‘baan, and got tired. Then Ramadan came and I fasted the month. Now it is the month of Shawwaal; is it better for me to fast six days of Shawwaal, or should I fast the remaining five days of the vow? Please advise me, may Allah bless you.


Praise be to Allah.

First of all you should fast the remaining
days of the vow, then fast the six days of Shawwaal if you are able to. But
if you do not do that, it does not matter, because fasting six days of
Shawwaal is mustahabb (encouraged), not obligatory, whereas fasting in
fulfilment of a vow is obligatory. So what you must do is start with that
which is obligatory, before doing that which is naafil (supererogatory). If
you intended to fast consecutive days and vowed to fast fifteen consecutive
days, then you must fast those days consecutively, and it is not permissible
for you to fast them separately; rather you must fast them consecutively,
and the previous fasts don’t count. 

But if you intended to fast them not
consecutively, then you must fast the remaining five days, in sha Allah, and
that will be the end of the matter. 

But you should not make vows after that,
because making vows is not appropriate. The Prophet (blessings and peace of
Allah be upon him) said: “Do not make vows, for vows do not ward off
anything of the divine decree; all they do is get something out of the
miser.” 

So vows should not be made, by one who is
sick or anyone else. But if a person does make a vow to do an act of
obedience to Allah, such as prayer and fasting, then it becomes obligatory
for him to fulfil it, because the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be
upon him) said: “Whoever vows to obey Allah, let him do so, and whoever vows
to disobey Allah, let him not do so.” Narrated by al-Bukhaari in as-Saheeh. 

So if a person vows to fast a certain
number of days, or to pray two rak‘ahs, or to give a certain amount of money
in charity, he must fulfil the act of worship he vowed to do, because Allah
praises the believers by saying (interpretation of the meaning): “They
(are those who) fulfill (their) vows, and they fear a Day whose evil will be
wide-spreading” [al-Insaan 76:7]. 

Moreover, the Messenger (blessings and
peace of Allah be upon him) enjoined fulfilment of vows, as in the hadeeth
quoted above. However, the hadeeth indicates that vows are not a means of
recovering from sickness or getting one’s needs met, so there is no need for
vows. Rather a vow is something that a person takes upon himself, and it is
a means of getting something out of the miser, but then he regrets it and
finds that he has put himself in a difficult situation, and wishes that he
had not made the vow. So Islam – praise be to Allah – brought something that
is kinder and more beneficial to people, which is the discouraging of vows.
End quote. 

Shaykh ‘Abd al-‘Azeez ibn Baaz (may Allah
have mercy on him).