Beruni and western scholars criticized the tradition
about Ashura. They were wrong.
By Shaykh Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi (Raheemullah)
The fast of 'Ashura was prescribed before the fasts of Ramadan. The Jews observed it
and so did the people of Arabia before the dawn of Islam.
It is related by Imam Bukhari on the authority of Ibn-i-Abbas that when the Prophet came to Madinah he found that the Jews observed the fast of 'Ashura. He enquired about it
from them and was told that it was the day on which God had delivered the Children of
Israel from the enemy and Moses used to keep a fast on it as an expression of gratitude to
the Almighty. The Prophet thereupon, remarked that
'Moses has a greater claim upon me than upon you,' and he fasted on that day and
instructed his followers to do the same.
It is also mentioned in Muslim that it is a most important day. On this day God had
delivered Moses and his followers and drowned Pharaoh and his men. Moses fasted on it in
thanksgiving. Imam Bukhari adds that it is related by Abu Bishr: "We also keep fast
as a token of respect to Moses."
But the celebrated mathematician Abu Rehan Beruni challenged the veracity of these
reports on the basis of a comparative study of the Jewish and Arabian Calendars. He
writes: "It is said that 'Ashur is a Hebrew word which has become 'Ashura in Arabic.
It stands for the tenth day of the Jewish month of Tisri. The fast observed on this day is
called Yom Kippur. It came to be incorporated in the Arab Calendar and the name was given
to the tenth day of the first month of their year in the same way in which it denoted the
tenth day of the first month of the Jewish Calendar. It was instituted as a day of fasting
among the Muslims in the first year of Migration. Later, when fasting was enjoined in the
month of Ramadan it was dropped. A Tradition has it that when the Prophet came to Madinah
and saw that the Jews observed the fast of 'Ashura he enquired about it and was told that
it was the day on which God had drowned Pharaoh and his people and delivered Moses and his
followers from them, and Moses used to fast on it in thanksgiving. The Prophet, then,
remarked that Moses had a greater claim upon him than upon them and he fasted on that day
and instructed his followers to do the same. When the fasts of Ramadan were prescribed,
the Prophet neither enjoined the fast of 'Ashura nor forbade it.
Ashura as mentioned in the tradition, is a day
of merriment and decoration. We fast on this day as a token of respect to Prophet Musa,
alayhis-sallam (Moses). |
But this report is fallacious and does not stand the test of enquiry. The first day of
the month of Muharram in the first year of Hijrah (Migration) was Friday, which
corresponds to the 16th of Tamuz, 933 (A.E.). As against it, the first day of that year
among the Jews was Sunday, the 12th of Awwal which corresponds to the 29th of Safar.
Hence, the fast of Ashura should have fallen on Tuesday, the 9th of Rabi-ul-Awwal, while
the Migration had taken place during the first half of that month. The two dates, at any
rate, do not correspond to each other."
He adds: "The contention that on this day God had drowned the Pharaoh, too, is not
supported by what is given in the Torah. The event of the drowning of the Pharaoh had
taken place, according to Torah, on the 21st of Nisan, which is the seventh day of the
festival of Passover. The first Jewish fast of Passover, after the arrival of the Prophet
in Madinah, occurred on Tuesday, the 22nd of Azhar 933 which corresponds to the 17th of
Ramadan. This report also is, therefore, without a foundation."
With due respect to the scholarship of Beruni, it is clear that he has built his thesis
wholly on conjecture. He has, for instance, surmised that the talk reported by Ibn-i-Abbas
and other Companions had taken place on the very first day of the Prophet's arrival in
Madinah as is evident from his observation, "when the sacred Prophet came to Madinah
or entered it."
This misconception is due to the ignorance of the science of Traditions and of the holy
Companion's mode of narration, innumerable instances of which are available in the
Traditions. For example, it is related by Anas bin Malik: "When the Prophet came to
Madinah and (saw that) there were two days which the people of that place celebrated as
festivals he enquired about their significance. (The people of Madinah) told, 'These were
our days of fun and entertainment during the days of Paganism.' The Prophet, thereupon,
observed, 'God has given you two better days in their place, 'Id-ul-Fitr and
'Id-ul-Adha'."
Now, will it be proper for anyone to infer from the above Tradition that the arrival of
the Prophet in Madinah took place on the same day that was the day of celebration in that
town, and to proceed to question the veracity of the Tradition on the ground that it was
not chronometrically possible? Similar errors of interpretation have been made in respect
of other traditions as well, like the one relating to pollination in date palms.
Commenting on the argument advanced by Beruni, Allama Ibn-i-Hajr Asqallani says,
"He found it difficult to accept the tradition due to the misunderstanding that
when the Prophet arrived in Madinah he saw the Jews in the state of keeping the fast of
'Ashura while, in fact, it was in the month of Rabi-ul-Awwal that the Prophet had come to
Madinah. The answer to it is that he has erred in the interpretation of the tradition.
What the tradition actually means is that the Prophet came to know of the fast of 'Ashura
only when he had migrated to Madinah and made his enquiry, for the first time, after he
had reached there. In other words, the Prophet, when he came to Madinah and stayed there
till 'Ashura, found that the Jews fasted on that day."
There is left no chronological contradiction after Allama Asqallani's explanation, in
the Tradition regarding the fast of 'Ashura.
The second misconception under which Beruni labors is that the fast of 'Ashura
mentioned in the Tradition signifies the tenth day of the Jewish month of Tisri
which is also known as Yom Kippur or the Fast of Atonement and is observed by
them with greater ceremony than any other fast. But there is nothing in the tradition
to warrant such a conclusion, and it is also not supported by the Torah because the Fast
of Atonement was instituted in expiation of a mortal sin and observed as a day of penance
and mourning.
The Day of Atonement, which is the tenth day of the seventh month of Tisri, is referred
to in these words in the Third Book of Moses called, Leviticus:
"And this will be a statute for ever unto you; that in the seventh month, on the
tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be
one of your own country, or a stranger who sojourneth among you: for on that day shall the
priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins
before the Lord. It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls,
by a statute forever" (Lev. 16:29-31)
At another place, in the same Book, it is said: "And the Lord spoke unto Moses,
saying, also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it
shall be a holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an
offering made by fire unto the Lord. And ye shall do no work in that same day; for it is a
day of atonement to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God." (Lev.
23:26-28)
Similarly, in the Book of Numbers, it is set forth: "And ye shall have on the
tenth day of this seventh month a holy convocation; and ye shall afflict your souls; ye
shall not do any work therein."
On the other hand, it explicitly occurs in the traditions that the day of 'Ashura (on
which the Muslims are enjoined to fast) was a day of rejoicing among the Jews. As Imam
Bukhari has related it on the authority of Abu Musa Ashari, the Jews regarded it to be a
day of Eid and it was on seeing it that the holy Prophet advised his Companions also to
keep fast on it.
In Saheeh Muslim, also, it is related from Qais bin Muslim that men of good-doing
observed the fast of Ashura and celebrated it as the day of Eid, with their women wearing
the best of clothes and ornaments. The Prophet, on seeing it, said to us, "You should
also fast on this day."
It is, further, related by Koraib bin S'ad from Omar bin el-Khattab that, "On the
Day of Judgment God will ask you only about two fasts, the fasts of Ramadan and the fast
of the day of adornment (i.e., 'Ashura)."
In the light of the facts given above, it will be incorrect to say that 'Ashura is the
Day of Atonement. Were it so, it would have been a day of lamentation and mortification
while 'Ashura, as mentioned in the tradition, is a day of merriment and decoration.
The same fallacy is shared by a number of Western scholars as well. As for instance,
Abraham Katish observes about the Day of Attonement in his book entitled, 'Judaism in
Islam,' that "Mohammad, in the beginning, instituted it as a day of fasting for
Muslims."
The assertion of the Jews themselves about 'Ashura that it was the day on which God had
delivered the Israelites from their enemies is enough to set at rest all doubts in this
connection. In the Torah it has been repeatedly mentioned as Abib which later came to be
known as Nisan. About Abib, we read in Dairatul M'aarif, "it is a Hebraic word which
means 'green'. It is the name of the first month of the Hebraic year. This name was given
to it by Moses and it corresponds nearly to the month of April. When the Jews were exiled
in Babylon they changed its name to Nisan, meaning 'the month of flowers.' Their
'Id-ul-Fateer (Passover) is also held in the middle of it."
Beruni, also, has admitted that it is wrong to suppose that the Day of Atonement
signified the day on which God had drowned Pharaoh and his men. He says, "Their
contention that on this day God had drowned Pharaoh is opposed to what is stated in the
Torah because the event of drowning took place on the 21st of Nisan, which is the seventh
day of Ayam-ul-Fateer (Passover). It is set forth in Torah (Ex. 12: 18): 'In the first
month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until
the one and twentieth day of the month at even'."
We, therefore, conclude that 'Ashura, which is mentioned in the traditions related by
Ibn-i-Abbas and others and on which day the Muslims have been exhorted to fast and was
included among the near-obligatory duties in Islam before the fasts of Ramadan were
prescribed, corresponds, in the largest measure, to the day which falls in the middle of
the Hebraic month of Abib, whose name was changed to Nisan by the Jews during the period
of their exile in Babylon and was celebrated by them as an 'Id and an event of fasting and
entertainment. It was on this day that the Israelites had come out of Egypt and the
Pharaoh was drowned. In the second Book of Moses it is related: "And Moses said unto
the people, Remember this day in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of
bondage; for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out from this place; there shall no
leavened bread be eaten. This day came ye out in the month of Abib." (Ex. 13: 3-4)
In sum, the general consensus among Muslim theologians and religious scholars is that
'Ashura fell on the tenth day of the Arab month of Muharram in the second year of
Migration and that it was later annulled by Ramadan.
Besides, any attempt to make the Lunar Arabian Calendar correspond to the Solar Jewish
Calendar can, at the best, be only hypothetical. The ancient custom of Nasi has also taken
a hand in adding to the confusion. This practice was quite common in Arabia, both before
and after the advent of Islam, till it was prohibited by the Qur'anic injunction which
reads: Postponement of a month is only an excess of disbelief, whereby those who
disbelieve are misled. (ix: 37)
On the occasion of the Farewell Hajj, the holy Prophet had declared, "Time has
returned to the original state that obtained when the heavens and the earth were
created". These words were of Divine Inspiration for the Arab arrangement of time
into days, weeks, months and years had been changed so frequently that it could not be
relied upon nor restored to its original form through mathematical calculation. It is,
therefore, incorrect to question the authenticity of successive Traditions merely on the
basis of an erratic and inconstant Calendar.
It is also possible that the Jews of Madinah were different from the other Jewish
communities where the fast of 'Ashura was concerned and observed it with greater
enthusiasm and regularity, and, in this respect, they were similar to the Arabs who,
seeing that so many important events had taken place on that day, fasted on it out of
reverence.
It is related by Hazrat-at Ayesha , "the Quraish fasted on the day of 'Ashura
during the period of Ignorance and the sacred Prophet also kept it." (Muslim).
Further, the fast days among the Jews living in different countries differed from one
another. We have seen how in the Jewish Encyclopedia it is indicated that apart from the
fixed fast-days many fasts of a local or national character had become established among
the Jews from the early days, which varied from place to place. Private fasts were also
common among the Jews and one could take it upon oneself to fast on certain days in memory
of certain events or at the time of adversity to arouse God's mercy. In these
circumstances, it is quite possible that the fast of 'Ashura, on the tenth day of the
first month of the Arab Calendar, was peculiar to the Jews living in Arabia alone.
Perhaps, it is for this reason that the Talmud and the Jewish Calendar are silent on this
score. Some historians have treated it as identical! to the Fast of Atonement which all
the Jews, wherever they be, consider obligatory. Thus, those who subscribe to this view
are inclined to doubt the veracity of the afore-mentioned traditions. But their judgment
is influenced by the ignorance of the habits and practices of the Jews living in various
parts of the world, specially in Arabia where they had been settled for generations as a
distinct community, possessing their own beliefs and customs and receiving local
impressions in the historical course of things.
Back to Content