Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.  (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

Assalamoalikum warahmatullahi wabarkatuhu,

brother Burhan i really appreciate your work which you are doing for the sake of Allah and insha Allah Allah will Reward you for this great work.

Brother i have a question regarding missed fasts as i cannot find it in your site so i preffered to ask you. Brother i had 11 missed fasts of ramadan and i also want to make fasts of Shawwal as i know one have to complete her missed (Fard) Fast First and then Nafil fasts. The problem is that i was not able to complete these 11 missed Fasts of Ramadan in the month of Shawwal due to my Period Cycle.i thought to have 17 fasts including 6 of Shawwal in the month of Shawwal but unfortunately i could make only 10 fasta will those be counted as fard or sunnah fasts coz i just decided to make 17. please clear this confusion. May Allah bless you and Jazakumullahu khairan. 

(There may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)

Answer:

Missed & Shawwal fast

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no person,  no grave, no prophet,  no imam,  no dai,  nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

Your Question: i thought to have 17 fasts including 6 of Shawwal in the month of Shawwal but unfortunately i could make only 10 fasta will those be counted as fard or sunnah fasts coz i just decided to make 17. please clear this confusion.

Dear and Beloved Sister, the making of an intention or ‘neeyah’ is an obligatory condition of performing the fasts, thus how the fasts are counted depends entirely on your intentions.  If your intention was to make 17 fasts in the month of Shawwal, and 11 of them were for the missed fasts of Ramadan, but for whatever reason you were able to perform only 10 of those 17 intended fasts; then these 10 fasts will count as the atonement of 10 of the 11 missed obligatory fasts of Ramadan.

The missed fasts of Ramadan are a debt one owes to their Lord and must be fulfilled before one performs any of the ‘nafl’ or ‘voluntary’ fasts.

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me alone.  Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

Your brother and well wisher in Islam,

Burhan