The Fast on the Day of Ashoora
Most of our Imams have prohibited the fast on the day of Ashoora. In fact, our scholars have just stopped short of declaring it Haram.
Sunnis insist that it is a recommended fast according to a report in Bukhari. That report is very clearly fabricated because it says that the Prophet saw the Jews fasting on the day of Ashoora so the Prophet said that we should also fast on that day. This does not make sense.
Why would the Jews fast on a day taken out of the Arab calendar when they have their own calendar and they have been following that calendar for five thousand years?
Our Shariat is based on the holy Qur'an not on the practice of the Jews. Why would the Prophet, suddenly follow the Jews?
Qur’an is very particular about change. When the Qibla was changed from Jerusalem to Makka, specific verses in the Qur’an were revealed to confirm that (2:142-144). If the fasting on Ashoora was being practiced and then the Ramadhan fasting became the Wajib act for Muslims, the Qur’an must have documented it. The verses about fasting in Ramadhan speak as if that is the first time fasting is being mentioned (2:184-187).
Most of the Sunni Hadeeth collection began in the 99 year of Hijra during the time of Umar bin Abdul Azeez. By that time the educated classes as well as the general populace in Syria have been fully brainwashed by the Umayyad propaganda machine against the Ahlul-Bayt. They had fabricated reports and those reports were being made current as hadeeth. The report found in Bukhari about the fasting on the Day of Ashoora is coming from the same source. The Banu Umayya invented the fast of Ashoora to reduce the significance of the martyrdom of Imam Husayn.
Our Imams have said that we should not spend the day of Ashoora as a blessed day. It was the day when the Ahlul-Bayt were subject to hunger, thirst, torture and killing by their enemies. We should not even wish prosperity for each other - we should say: Cursed be the Killers of Husayn and his Companions, when we meet.
It is better to recite the following one hundred times:
Alla humma la’an qatalat-al-Husayn wa ashaabihi
We should not buy food for storage on this day.We should not pray for our own prosperity on this day.
We should spend the day in mourning, remembering Husayn and his companions for their valour, and their commitment to the Islamic principles.We should weep and cry with tears.
Many Shia families actually do not eat and drink anything all day on the day of Ashoora (without the
Niyyat of fasting) in sympathy with Husayn and his children. However, if there is the slightest chance that we would be dehydrated and we would not have any tears left in our system, then we should take a drink. Because weeping with tears is more important than fasting, even if it is in sympathy. We should offer special prayers for Ashoora and read Qur'an. The Ziyarat of Imam Husayn for the Day of Ashoora as well as the Ziyarat-e-Waritha and the Ziyarat-e-Nahiyya should be recited.
The men folk get together and re-enact the ritual of stepping forward seven times and backward seven times, saying: inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raaji’oon.
This is in commemoration of Imam Husayn carrying the six month old baby who had been slain by an arrow, in his arms. As Husayn proceeds to the tent where the baby’s mother is waiting, he hesitates and steps back and forth seven times.