مختصر صحيح مسلم
Mukhtasar Sahih Muslim
Virtue of fasting.
Abu Huraira (may Allah be pleased with him) reports that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Allah Almighty says, "Every deed of the son of Adam is for him except fasting; it is especially for Me, and I alone will reward it. And fasting is a shield (from sins)." Then, when any of you is fasting, he should neither utter foul words nor raise his voice. If someone abuses him or tries to fight with him, he should say, 'I am fasting.' By the One in whose hand is the soul of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), surely the smell from the mouth of a fasting person is more beloved to Allah on the Day of Resurrection than the fragrance of musk. And the fasting person has two joys with which he rejoices: one when he breaks his fast, and the other when he meets his Lord due to his fasting.
Virtue of the month of Ramadan.
It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: When Ramadan comes, the gates of Paradise are opened and the gates of Hell are closed, and the devils are chained tightly.
Do not fast a day or two before Ramadan.
Sayyiduna Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) reports that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Do not fast one or two days before Ramadan, except for a person who used to fast on a particular (fixed) day, and that day coincides (with these days), then he may fast on his fixed day. (For example, if he used to fast on Thursday and Friday, and the 29th or 30th of Sha’ban falls on those days, then he may fast.)
Fasting is based on sighting the moon.
Narrated Abu Huraira (may Allah be pleased with him): The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) mentioned the moon and said: When you see the moon, then fast. And when you see it (again), then break your fast. But if clouds come, then complete thirty days of fasting (and then celebrate Eid).
The month can be twenty-nine days.
Narrated from Umm al-Mu’minin Umm Salamah (may Allah be pleased with her) that the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) took an oath that he would not go to his wives for a month. (But) when twenty-nine (29) days had passed, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) went to his wives in the morning or evening. He was told,“O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), you had taken an oath that you would not come to us for a month.”The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) replied,“A month can also be of twenty-nine days.”
Sayyiduna Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) narrates from the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: We are an unlettered nation; we neither write nor calculate. The month is like this, like this, and like this. And the third time, he folded his thumb. And the month is like this, like this, and like this. That is, it completes thirty days.
Allah has lengthened the moon (month).
Sayyiduna Abu’l-Bakhtari (may Allah have mercy on him) says: We set out for ‘Umrah, and when we reached the middle of (the place) Nakhlah, everyone began to look at the moon. Some, after seeing it, said that it was a three-night-old moon (i.e., because of its size), and some said it was two nights old. Then we met Sayyiduna Ibn ‘Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) and mentioned to him that we had seen the moon, and some said it was three nights old and some said two nights old. Ibn ‘Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) then asked: On which night did you see it? We replied: On such-and-such night. He said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said that Allah Almighty has made it appear larger for sighting. It was of the same night as the night you saw it.
Each city has its own moon sighting.
Kuraib reports that Lady Umm Fadl bint Harith (may Allah be pleased with her) sent him to (the land of) Syria to Sayyiduna Muawiyah (may Allah be pleased with him). He said: I went to Syria and completed his task, and I saw the crescent of Ramadan on the night of Friday (i.e., Thursday evening). Then, at the end of the month, I came to Madinah. Sayyiduna Abdullah ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) asked me and mentioned the crescent, asking: When did you see it? I said: On the night of Friday. He asked: Did you see it yourself? I said: Yes, and the people also saw it and fasted, and Sayyiduna Muawiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) and the people also fasted. Then Sayyiduna Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: But we saw it on the night of Saturday, so we will complete thirty fasts or (stop when) we see the crescent. So I said: Is the sighting of Sayyiduna Muawiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) and his fasting not sufficient for you? He said: No, this is how the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded us. And Yahya bin Yahya is in doubt whether the word in the hadith is "naktafi" or "taktafi".
The months of Eid are not less in reward.
Narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: The two months of Eid are not deficient: one is Ramadan and the other is Dhul-Hijjah.
Suhoor (pre-dawn meal) for fasting.
Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Partake in suhoor, for there is blessing in suhoor."