Six Days of Shawwal 2027: Dates, Reward and How to Fast

After a month of fasting, most people are ready for Eid and a rest. The sunnah offers one more small effort with a large return: six days of fasting in Shawwal, the month that follows Ramadan. This article gives the hadith, the expected dates for 2027, the views on how to fast them and how they relate to missed Ramadan fasts.

The hadith

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "Whoever fasts Ramadan and then follows it with six days of Shawwal, it is as if he fasted the whole year" (Muslim 1164).

Scholars explain the arithmetic through the Qur'anic principle that a good deed is rewarded tenfold (6:160): 30 days of Ramadan count as 300, six days of Shawwal count as 60, and 360 days is a lunar year. Whether the month has 29 or 30 days, the reward described is for Ramadan plus six.

Expected dates for Shawwal 1448

In the Umm al-Qura calendar, 1 Shawwal 1448 (Eid al-Fitr) is expected on Tuesday 9 March 2027. Countries that complete thirty days of Ramadan or sight the moon a day later will celebrate Eid on Wednesday 10 March. Dates here are expected; the actual date in your country depends on moon sighting or the local authority and may differ by a day.

The full calendar, including Eid and the months that follow, is on the Islamic calendar 2027 page and the Hijri calendar. For the Eid day itself, including the prayer and the dates before it, see Eid al-Fitr 2027.

Three ways to fast them

Consecutively, straight after Eid. Wednesday 10 to Monday 15 March 2027. The body is already used to fasting, and the obligation is cleared before daily life resumes. Shafi'is and many Hanbalis consider this the best arrangement.

On Mondays and Thursdays. Monday 15, Thursday 18, Monday 22, Thursday 25, Monday 29 March and Thursday 1 April 2027. This combines the six with the Monday and Thursday sunnah fasts, and six working-day fasts spread over three weeks are easy to keep.

With the white days. Sunday 21, Monday 22 and Tuesday 23 March (13–15 Shawwal) are the ayyam al-bid; add three more days of your choice. See white days fasting.

All three are valid. Hanafis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis regard the six as recommended. Imam Malik is reported to have disliked fasting them, out of concern that people would come to see them as part of Ramadan; later Maliki scholars generally permit them as long as that confusion is avoided. Ja'fari practice does not single out six Shawwal fasts but encourages voluntary fasting generally. For your own situation, ask a scholar or imam you trust.

Missed Ramadan fasts and the six

This is the question most people ask. The hadith says "whoever fasts Ramadan and then follows it", so the majority (and the stricter view in each school) say: complete any missed Ramadan days first, then fast the six.

A worked example. Fatima missed five days of Ramadan 1448. Her Shawwal plan:

Eleven days of fasting in the first twelve days after Eid, finished before the end of March. Alternatively she spreads them: make-up fasts on the first five Mondays and Thursdays, the six on the next six, which runs into early April and may leave the last of the six outside Shawwal if the month has 29 days.

Views that differ from the majority:

• Some Hanafi and Maliki scholars permit fasting the six before the make-up days, because make-up fasts have no fixed deadline in those schools before the next Ramadan, while the six are tied to Shawwal.
• Some Shafi'i scholars hold that a person who fasts a make-up day in Shawwal with the intention of the obligatory fast also obtains the reward of the six, though the full reward requires a separate intention.
• Others say the two intentions cannot be combined, because each is a distinct act.

Women who missed days through menstruation, and anyone with several days to make up, should decide in the first days of Shawwal; the rules for make-up fasts are in missed fasts: qada, fidyah and kaffarah.

Practical notes

• Make the intention at night, before Fajr, as for any obligatory fast; for voluntary fasts most schools accept an intention made in the morning if nothing has been eaten.
• Suhoor and iftar times are on the Ramadan timetable, which continues into Shawwal as ordinary prayer times. Fasts in mid-March in Europe are about 12–13 hours.
• Fasting on Friday alone is disliked by many scholars; pair it with Thursday or Saturday if a Friday falls in your plan.
• If Eid in your country is on Wednesday 10 March, shift every date above by one day.

Six days is a small thing after thirty. The reward described by the Prophet (peace be upon him) is not.