Fasting the Day of Eid: Why Is It Forbidden?

11 August, 2019
Q As-Salamu alaykum. Some people say that fasting is forbidden on the day of Eid because Satan used to fast on the day of Eid. Is this true according to Islam?

Answer

Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. 

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.


In this fatwa:

It is not mentioned in any hadith that Satan fasts on the day of Eid. But it is confirmed that the Prophet forbade us from fasting on the day of Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha.


The late Saudi scholar Sheikh Ibn `Uthaymeen  said:

The wisdom of not offering fast on the day of Eid is that the day of Eid Al-Fitr is the day of breaking the fast from Ramadan, and Ramadan cannot be specified [singled out] except by breaking the fast [not fasting] on the day of Eid.

With regard to Eid Al-Adha, it is because it is the day of sacrifice, and if people were to fast on this day, they would have acted differently from what Allah loves and ordered us to do in His saying “So eat of them and feed the miserable and poor.” (Al-Hajj 22:28), how could a fasting person eat from them?

Allah Almighty knows best.

Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.

Source: www.islamweb.net.