Mūsā ibn Ismāʿīl narrated to us; Ḥammād narrated to us from Ḥumayd, from Anas. Aḥmad and al-Nasāʾī also recorded the report, and its chain of transmission meets the criteria set by Muslim.

The proof it provides is clear: the two pre-Islamic festivals were neither sanctioned by the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) nor did he allow the people to continue their customary celebrations. Instead he said, “Allah has replaced them with two other days.” Replacement (ibdāl) necessarily entails abandoning what has been replaced, for the substitute and the original cannot be combined. Hence this wording is only used when one of the two is to be left aside, as in the Almighty’s words:

“Will you take him and his offspring as allies instead of Me, while they are enemies to you? How wretched a substitute for the wrongdoers!” (al-Kahf 18:50);

and His words, “We replaced their two gardens with two gardens bearing bitter fruit, tamarisks, and a few lote-trees” (Sabaʾ 34:16);

and His words, “But those who wronged changed the word that had been said to them for something other than what had been told to them” (al-Baqarah 2:59).