| Answer: Answer: If all the texts of this Hadīth and other similar
Ahādith are collected and analyzed, it comes to light that here the fasts of
Ramadān are not implied . The fasts mentioned here relate to vows. In other
words, the Hadīth means that if a person had pledged to keep some fasts and was
unable to keep them because he died before he could, then one of his heirs
should do so. This is much like a debt outstanding in a person’s name, which, we
all know, is passed on to the heirs if the actual person dies. Consequently, the
Prophet (sws) is reported to have said to the daughter of a deceased who had
died and had left avowed fasts:
‘Had she had an outstanding debt in her name, would you
not have paid it’. She said ‘Yes’. At this the Prophet replied: ‘It is more
befitting to fulfill what is outstanding to Allah’. (Muslim, Kitābu’l-Siyām) |