Friday 18 September 2015

Dhūl Ḥijjah, the Day of ʿArafah and Fasting





Dhūl Ḥijjah, the Day of ʿArafah and Fasting

By Imam Wahbah Az-Zuḥaylī, may Allah have mercy on him[1]

…As for the ten days of Dhūl Ḥijjah, al-Bayhaqī has related on the authority of Jābir, who said, ‘The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “By the dawn, and ten nights” [al-Fajr 89:1-2], {The ten is the ten of the sacrifice, the day is the Day of ʿArafah and the even (shafʿ)[2] is the Day of the Immolation (yawm an-nar).}

Ibn ʿAbbās explained “By the dawn” to be the dawn of the daytime “and ten nights” to be the ten of the sacrifice. Regarding “is there not in that an oath for the intelligent?”, he said, ‘those who have discernment’.

Masrūq said, ‘The ten is the ten of the sacrifice which Allah, Mighty and Majestic, promised Mūsā, peace be upon him, and we have completed them with ten.’

Al-Bukhārī and al-Bayhaqī have related on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, that he said, {There are no days more beloved to Allah in which to do good deeds and none better than these ten days.} They said: ‘And not even to strive[3] in God’s way?’ He said: {Not even to strive in God’s way, except for a man who strives with his life and his wealth and then doesn’t come back with anything.}’

Ibn ʿAbbās added, ‘Therefore, increase therein in tahlīl,[4] tamīd,[5] takbīr[6] and tasbīḥ.’[7]

Al-Bayhaqī has related on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar, who said, ‘The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, {There are no better days according to Allah, and there are no days that I love to do good deeds in more than these ten, so increase therein in tahlīl, takbīr and tamīd.}’

Al-Bayhaqī has related on the authority of some of the wives of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, would fast the nine days of Dhūl ijjah, the day of ʿĀshūrāʾ and three days of every month: the first Monday of the month and two Thursdays.

Al-Bayhaqī has also related in his Shuʿab on the authority of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, who said, ‘The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, ‘{The master of the months is the month of Ramaḍān, and the greatest of them in sanctity (ḥurmah) is Dhūl Ḥijjah.}’

And there is al-Bayhaqī’s narration on the authority of Abū Hurayrah, who said, ‘The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, {There are no days in this worldly life in which Allah loves to be worshipped through deeds more than these ten days; fasting every day therein is equivalent to fasting a year and standing in every one of its nights is equivalent to standing in the Night of Power (Laylat al-Qadr).}’ This ḥadīth is proof that fasting every day of the ten days of Dhūl Ḥijjah[8] is equivalent to fasting a year.

In another narration of al-Bayhaqī, it is on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said, ‘The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, {There are no better days according to Allah, and there are no days in which good deeds are more beloved to Allah, Mighty and Majestic, than these ten days, so increase therein in tahlīl, takbīr and the dhikr of Allah, for indeed they are the days of tahlīl, takbīr and the dhikr of Allah. Fasting one of these days is equivalent to fasting a year and good deeds therein are multiplied seven hundred times.} This ḥadīth is proof of the Sunnah virtue of fasting the ten days of Dhūl Ḥijjah.



Fasting the Day of ʿArafah, Muḥarram and ʿĀshūrāʾ

The Prophetic Sunnah has emphasised fasting the Day of ʿArafah (al-Waqfah), Allah’s sacred month of al-Muḥarram and ʿĀshūrāʾ because of the virtues and distinctions that lie therein. As for fasting the Day of ʿArafah and commending it, this is due to the Exalted’s statement: “and the witness and the witnessed” [al-Burūj 85:3]. It has been related from Abū Hurayrah, marfūʿan[9] and mawqūfan,[10] that the witnessed is the Day of ʿArafah.

Al-Bayhaqī has related in his Shuʿab, on the authority of Abū Hurayrah, that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, {The best of days according to Allah is Friday, which is the witness, while the witnessed is the Day of ʿArafah and the Promised Day is the Day of Resurrection.}[11]

Muslim has narrated on the authority of Abū Qatādah that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, {For fasting the day of ʿĀshūrāʾ, I expect that Allah expiate the sins of the year that preceded it.} In another narration, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, informs us, {Fasting the Day of ʿArafah is expiation for a year, as well as the one that follows it, while fasting the day of ʿĀshūrāʾ is expiation for a year.}

ʿĀʾishah, may Allah be pleased with her, said, ‘There is no day in the year that I love to fast more than the Day of ʿArafah.’[12]

Al-Bayhaqī has narrated in his Shuʿab on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb, on the authority of his father, on the authority of his grandfather, who said, ‘The supplication that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, made the most on the Day of ʿArafah was: {There is no god but Allah alone, He has no partner. He has the Dominion and He deserves all Praise, and He has power over everything.}’[13]

Al-Bayhaqī has also narrated in his Shuʿab on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said, ‘The specific days (al-ayām al-maʿlūmāt)[14] are the ten days and the designated days (al-ayām al-maʿdūdāt)[15] are the days of tashrīq.’[16]


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[1] (tn): Translated from the Imam’s book Uṣūl al-Īmān wa al-Islām (Damascus: Dār al-Fikr, 2008), v.1, p.485-487
[2] (tn): Sūrat al-Fajr 89:3
[3] Ar. jihād
[4] (tn): i.e. saying la ilāha illa Allah
[5] (tn): i.e. saying al-ḥamdu lillāh
[6] (tn): i.e. saying Allahu akbar
[7] (tn): i.e. saying subḥān Allah
[8] (tn): apart from the day of ʿĪd, which is the 10th
[9] (tn): i.e. its chain of transmission is traceable back to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace
[10] (tn): i.e. attributed to a Companion and the Companion did not attribute it to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace
[11] (tn): Please refer to al-Burūj 85:1-3
[12] Narrated by al-Bayhaqī in as-Sunan al-Kubrā
[13] Ar. La ilaha illa Allah, waḥdahu, la sharīka lah, lahu al-mulk, wa lahu al-ḥamd wa huwa ʿalā kulli shayʾin qadīr
[14] Please see al-Ḥajj 22:28: “…and invoke Allah’s name on specific days…”
[15] Please see al-Baqarah 2:203: “Remember Allah on the designated days…”
[16] (tn): i.e. the three days that follow the ʿĪd of the Sacrifice

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