Q. As Ashura approaches, there are many emails
and publications within various Muslim communities exhorting them to fast on
this day in order to reap its benefits. I did an Internet search on the origin
of Ashura and came across several
articles on this subject, including these two (Ashura and The
Islamic "Yom Kippur"). There are numerous ahadith (reported
Prophet traditions) about the virtues of fasting for Ashura, with the Prophet Muhammad allegedly claiming in one of them
that Muslims have more claim over Moses than the Jews (a rather bold
statement).
Narrated
Ibn Abbas: The Prophet came to Madina and saw the
Jews fasting on the day of Ashura. He asked them about that. They replied:
"This is a good day, the day on which Allah rescued Bani
Israel from their enemy. So, Moses (Musa) fasted this day." The Prophet
said: "We have more claim over Moses than you." So the Prophet fasted
on that day and ordered (the Muslims) to fast (on that day). Sahih Bukhari Chapter No: 31, Hadith no: 222
While the following statement may
give the majority of Muslims a lot of heartburn, it is abundantly clear that many
of the beliefs and practices in Islam are of Jewish origin (shellfish being
frowned upon, stoning to death, punishment in the grave, etc.). In fact I
sometimes remark to a Jewish friend at work that we (Muslims) do a better job
of practicing Judaism than you (Jews). This is indeed ironic given the number
of anti-Jewish reports in the various hadith
collections. Have you done any research in this area and if so, what is your
view of Ashura? Is it possible that
the Prophet mandated this fast for Ashura
as claimed in numerous ahadith,
or is it a tradition that early Jewish converts to Islam were averse to
abandoning, and thus incorporated it into the religion (similar to the
Christmas tree and December 25th for Christianity), and then the statement
attributed to the Prophet to sanction the fast for Ashura?
A. As
you pointed out, it seems clear that the Prophet did not see himself as coming
to create a new religion, but to rather continue the monotheistic message of
the antecedent paths, albeit adapted for the Arabs. Therefore the early Muslims
did not see it necessary to negate many Jewish practices, and indeed built upon
such, based upon one of the acknowledge sources of the Shari’ah, "Shari'at man qablana"
-- the Shari’ah
of those before us, i.e., the Jews. The nature of the fast in Judaism, and the
honor accorded to the Children of Israel were all factors in the Ashura fast. With the passing of time,
however, and other events that occurred on this day, Muslims have added to the
commemoration. As far as the hadith
goes, where the Prophet supposedly claims that Muslims have more of a right to
Moses, this can probably be seen as a triumphalist insertion, an example of
what hadith scholars term "ziyadat al nass" -- an addition to the narrative.
It would seem that some early
Muslims, after the death of the Prophet, took the search for ideal practice to
an extent that incorporated the "shari’at man qablana"
and therefore implemented laws that they perceived would make for a better
society. In a typical medieval, androcentric environment, where there was an
obsession with sexuality and what constituted sexual misconduct, the more rigid
Jewish law of stoning for adulterers must have seemed more appropriate in
comparison to the Qur’anic concept of lashes. The suggestion you make about
early Jewish converts being averse to abandoning certain practices could
certainly be the case, since every religion, Islam included, has accretions
that are incorporated and become legitimized with the passage of time. But it
is equally possible that the respect for anything that could be a provenance to
Moses and the early Jews were admired by the Arabs, especially since the Prophet
most mentioned in the Qur'an is Moses.
Posted
October 30, 2015