Fasting After 15 Shaʿbān

Q: Is it disliked or prohibited to fast after the 15th of Shaʿbān?

A: Fasting after the middle of Shaʿbān is not prohibited, nor is it generally disliked.

What is disliked is to precede Ramaḍān by fasting one or two days only, without a valid reason, based on the well-established prophetic prohibition against singling out the day or two immediately before Ramaḍān.

Fasting more than two days before Ramaḍān, including after the 15th of Shaʿbān, is not disliked and remains permissible.

As for the narration that states, “When Shaʿbān is halfway, do not fast,” Imām Aḥmad and other leading scholars considered it weak, while those who authenticated it understood it as negating special virtue rather than establishing prohibition.

Even in the two days closest to Ramaḍān, fasting is permitted if it is part of a person’s regular habit or if it is done for a valid reason such as making up missed Ramaḍān fasts, fulfilling a vow, or performing expiatory fasting.

Accordingly, there is no blanket prohibition on fasting after the 15th of Shaʿbān in the Hanbali school; the only disliked case is fasting one or two days immediately before Ramaḍān without a specific reason.

Source: Sharḥ Muntahā al-Irādāt, Kashshāf al-Qināʿ