Ibn ‘Abbas said, "I never saw the Prophet singling out any day’s fast and considering it more excellent than another, except this day, the day of ‘Ashura’,* and this month, meaning the month of Ramadan."
*The 10th of Muharram.
Abu Huraira reported God’s messenger as saying, “The most excellent fast after Ramadan is in God’s month al-Muharram, and the most excellent prayer after what is prescribed is prayer during the night."
He said that when God’s messenger fasted on the day of ‘Ashura’ and commanded that it should be observed as a fast, he was told it was a day held in honour by Jews and Christians, and said, “If I am spared till next year I shall fast on the ninth.”
‘Imran b. Husain said that the Prophet asked him, or that he asked a man in ‘Imran’s hearing, “Father of so and so, did you not fast the last day of Sha'ban?" When, he replied that he had not, he said, “If you did not observe a fast, you must fast for two days."*
*To reconcile this tradition with that of Abu Huraira at the foot of p.420 it is suggested that the man had made a vow to observe this fast, or that it was his custom.
