Issues Related To The Month of Allāh al-Muḥarram
﷽
It Is The First of The Sacred Months
Allāh, the Exalted, said:
إِنَّ عِدَّةَ ٱلشُّهُورِ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ ٱثْنَا عَشَرَ شَهْرًۭا فِى كِتَـٰبِ ٱللَّهِ يَوْمَ خَلَقَ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضَ مِنْهَآ أَرْبَعَةٌ حُرُمٌۭ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ ٱلدِّينُ ٱلْقَيِّمُ ۚ فَلَا تَظْلِمُوا۟ فِيهِنَّ أَنفُسَكُمْ ۚ وَقَـٰتِلُوا۟ ٱلْمُشْرِكِينَ كَآفَّةًۭ كَمَا يُقَـٰتِلُونَكُمْ كَآفَّةًۭ ۚ وَٱعْلَمُوٓا۟ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ مَعَ ٱلْمُتَّقِينَ
Verily, the number of months with Allāh is twelve months (in a year), so was it ordained by Allāh on the Day when He created the heavens and the earth; of them four are Sacred (i.e. the 1st, the 7th, the 11th and the 12th months of the Islāmic calendar). That is the right religion, so wrong not yourselves therein, and fight against the Mushrikūn (polytheists, pagans, idolaters, disbelievers in the Oneness of Allāh) collectively as they fight against you collectively. But know that Allāh is with those who are Al-Muttaqūn (the pious). [Sūrah at-Tawbah, 36]
The Prophet - ﷺ - said: “Time has come back to its original state which it had when Allāh created the Heavens and the Earth; the year is twelve months, four of which are sacred. Three of them are in succession; Dhū al-Qa’dah, Dhū al-Ḥijjah and al-Muḥarram, and (the fourth being) Rajab Mudar (named after the tribe of Mudar as they used to respect this month) which stands between Jumād (ath-Thānī) and Shaʾbān.” [Agreed Upon]
The Reason For Its Naming
al-Ḥāfidh Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī - may Allāh have mercy upon him - mentioned:
The Prophet - ﷺ - named al-Muḥarram the Month of Allāh, and connecting it to Allāh points to its nobility and virtue because Allāh does not attribute to Himself except the chosen among His creation. Just as He attributed Muḥammad, Ibrāhīm, Isḥāq and Ya’qūb and other than them from the prophets - صلوات الله عليهم وسلامه - to His ‘Ubūdiyyah (servitude). And He attributed to Himself His Bayt (the Ka’bah) and His She-Camel (Nāqtullah, a sign of the people of Ṣāliḥ).
So when it was the case that this month is specified by it’s attribution to Allāh, the Exalted, and fasting is among the actions that is attributed to Allāh, the Exalted, since it (fasting) is for Him¹ among the (rest of the) actions, it was befitting that this month which is attributed to Allāh is specified with an action that has been attributed to Him specific to it, which is fasting.
And it has been mentioned concerning the reason behind attributing this month to Allāh, the Mighty and Majestic, that it is an indication to the fact that its sacredness to Allāh, the Mighty and Majestic, is not for anyone to change, as the people of Jāhiliyyah (pre-Islāmic ignorance) used to make it (Muḥarram) lawful and make sacred the month of Ṣafar in place of it. So (this attribution) indicates the Month of Allāh which He has made sacred (forbade fighting in it and sanctified it) so it is not for anyone among His creation to switch (in place of it anything) or change it.²
The Grave Nature of Sin In The Month of al-Muḥarram
Allāh, the Most High, said concerning the sanctity of the Sacred Months
فَلَا تَظۡلِمُوا۟ فِیهِنَّ أَنفُسَكُمۡۚ
So wrong not yourselves therein. [Sūrah at-Tawbah, 36]
Ibn ʿAbbās – may Allāh be pleased with him and his father – said: “In all of them (meaning all of the months), then four months were specified and made more sacred. Sins within them are greater (in punishment), and righteous actions within them greater in reward.”³
Qatādah – may Allāh have mercy upon him – said: “Wrongdoings (sins) in the sacred months are more dangerous and burdensome than sin in other than it. Even though in all situations sins are great, however Allāh makes great/ magnifies the affairs as He wishes.”⁴
The Virtue of The Month of Allāh al-Muḥarram
The Prophet – ﷺ– said: “The best fasting after the Month of Ramaḍān is in the Month of Allāh al-Muḥarram, and the best prayer after the obligatory prayer is night prayer.” [Muslim 1163]
Ibn al-Qayyim – may Allāh have mercy upon him – said: “nothing has been established from the Prophet – ﷺ – regarding the virtues of the Month of Allāh al-Muḥarram except the narrations regarding fasting it, other than that is falsehood.”⁵
The Ta’rīf of ʿAshūrā'
The day of ʿAshūrā' is the tenth day of the Month of Allāh al-Muḥarram, and it was called ʿĀshūrā' because it is the tenth day. Just as the ninth day is called Tāsuʿā'.
Al-Ḥāfidh an-Nawawī said: “ʿĀshūrā' is the tenth day of al-Muḥarram, and Tāsuʿā' is the ninth day of it. This is our Madh-hab, and that of the majority of the scholars. It's apparent from the Aḥadīth and necessitated by the general wording. It is well known with the scholars of the Arabic Language.”⁶
The Virtue of Fasting ʿAshūrā'
The Prophet – ﷺ – said: “Fasting the Day of ʿĀshūrā', I hope that Allāh expiates the sins of the year which preceded it.” [Muslim 1163]
It was narrated on authority of Ibn ʿAbbās – may Allāh be pleased with them both – he said: I never saw the Prophet - ﷺ - seeking to fast on a day that he favored more than another except this day, the day of ʿĀshūrā', and this month, meaning the month of Ramaḍān. [Bukhārī 2006]
Yataḥarrá (يتحرّى - mentioned in the Ḥadīth): meaning he anticipates and prepares for fasting it in order to earn its reward.
The Wisdom Behind Fasting ʿĀshūrā'
It was narrated on authority of Ibn ʿAbbās - may Allāh be pleased with them both - he said: The Prophet - ﷺ - came to Medina and saw the Jews fasting on the day of ʿĀshūrā'. He asked them about that. They replied, “This is a good day, the day on which Allah rescued Banī Isrā’īl from their enemy. So, Mūsá fasted this day.” The Prophet - ﷺ - said, “We have more claim over Mūsá than you.” So, the Prophet fasted on that day and ordered (the Muslims) to fast (on that day). [Bukhārī 2004]
The Preference of Fasting the 9th and 10th of al-Muḥarram
It was narrated from Ibn ʿAbbās – may Allāh be pleased with them both – who said: The Messenger of Allāh – ﷺ – fasted the day of ʿĀshūrā' (the 10th of Muḥarram) and ordered with fasting it. It was said, “O Messenger of Allāh, it is a day venerated by the Jews and Christians”, so the Messenger of Allāh – ﷺ – said, “in that case, in-shāʾ-Allāh the coming year we will fast on the ninth day (Tāsūʿā'). He (Ibn ʿAbbās) said, ‘the following year didn’t come except that the Messenger of Allāh – ﷺ - died’.
And in a narration, “if I meet the next I would surely fast the ninth (Tāsūʿā')”. [Both narrated by Muslim 1134]
Ibn Ḥajr - may Allāh have mercy on him - said; “What is intended by fasting the ninth (Tasūʿā') possibly means he he did not specify it (meaning he didn’t single it out), rather he’d add it to the tenth (i.e. fast both ʿĀshūrā' and Tasūʿā'). Either out of caution or to differ from the Jews and Christians – and that is the most correct and some or the narrations of (Imām) Muslim point to this (meaning).⁷
The Stages of Fasting ʿĀshūrā'
The First Stage:
That the Prophet – ﷺ – would fast it in Makkah, but didn’t command the people to fast it. ʿĀ’ishah - may Allāh be pleased with her - said: “In Jāhiliyyah (the time of pre-Islāmic ignorance) Quraysh used to fast the day of ʿĀshūrā', and the Messenger of Allāh – ﷺ - would fast it.” [Agreed Upon]
The Second Stage:
That the Prophet - ﷺ - when he came to al-Madīnah he fasted it and ordered the people to fast it. So the fast of ʿĀshūrā' was (initially) Wājib (an obligation), then it was abrogated with the obligation of (fasting the month of) Ramaḍān. It was narrated from Ibn ʿAbbās – may Allāh be pleased with them both – that Allāh's Messenger - ﷺ - entered al-Madīnah and found the Jews fasting ʿĀshūrā'. So Allāh's Messenger – ﷺ – said to them, “What is this day which you are fasting?” So they said, “It is a great day. On it Allāh saved Mūsá and his people, and drowned Fir’awn and his people. So Mūsá fasted it out of gratitude to Allāh, so we fast it.” Allāh’s Messenger – ﷺ – said, “We have more right and are more entitled to Mūsá than you (the Jews)” so Allāh’s Messenger – ﷺ – fasted it and ordered with fasting it. [Narrated by Muslim]
To the point that he ordered whoever eats on the day to withhold (from eating, i.e. fast) the rest of that day.
A Warning Against Innovations on ʿĀshūrā'
Nothing has come regarding the virtue of ʿĀshūrā' other than fasting it. So nothing has come regarding specifying any type from the (other) types of worship. It is not legislated to specify it with meeting to make Dhikr (in groups and the likes), or Duʾā' (supplication), or Ṣalāh (prayer), or Ṣadaqah (charity), or other than it from the acts of worship, that is (all) from the innovations into the religion.
Ibn al-Qayyim – may Allāh have mercy upon him – said: “Others went to the other end and and took it (the Day of ʿĀshūrā') as a day of mourning and sadness (the Shīʾah). Both of these groups are innovated and have left the Sunnah. Ahl as-Sunnah (The People of Sunnah) do on it what the Prophet – ﷺ – ordered with on it from fasting, and they stay away from what the Shayṭān has commanded with of Bidʾah (innovation).”⁸
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*Meanings of the verses translated by Shaykh Muḥammad Taqī ad-Dīn al-Hilālī and Dr Muḥammad Muḥsin Khān - may Allāh have mercy on them. Aḥadīth narrated in Bukhārī were translated by Dr Muḥammad Muḥsin Khān.
¹ - This is in reference to the Ḥadīth Qudsī in which it has been mentioned that Allāh said, “fasting is for me and I will reward it” [see al-Bukhārī no. 7492 and Muslim no. 1151]
² - Laṭā’if al-Ma’ārif pg. 81-82
³ - Tafsir al-Qurʾān al-ʿAdhīm of Ibn Kathīr [4/148]
⁴ - Ijmāʿ al-Bayān of aṭ-Ṭabarī [14/339]
⁵ - al-Manār al-Munīf pg. 111
⁶ - al-Majmūʿ (6/383)
⁷ - Fatḥ al-Bārī (4/245)
⁸ - al-Manār al-Munīf pg. 113
