565 – Abu Qatadah al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was asked about fasting on the Day of ‘Arafah. He replied, ‘It wipes out the sins of the past year and of the year to come.’ He was asked about fasting on the Day of ‘Ashura, and he said, ‘It wipes out the sins of the past year.’ He was asked about fasting on Monday, and he said, ‘That is the day on which I was born, on which I was commissioned, and on which revelation was sent down to me.’” Related by Muslim (1).

– Vocabulary –
• ‘Ashura: Written with the extended feminine alif, which is the more classical form. The word functions as an adjective lacking a verbal root, as though the sense were “a day whose measure or description is ‘Ashura.’” By the consensus of most scholars it is derived from “tenth,” because it is the tenth day of Muharram. Others hold that it is the ninth day, by analogy with the Arabs’ naming of the watering schedule for camels, where the fifth day is called rubaʿ and so forth, making the ninth ‘ashir. The first view is stronger and more widely accepted among scholars and the Muslim community at large. It is an Islamic term; the pre-Islamic Arabs did not know the day by this name.
• “I was sent in it” and “revelation came down to me in it” convey the same idea, as confirmed by another narration in Muslim: “the day on which I was sent and revelation came down to me.”

– Points of Benefit –
1 – The hadith recommends fasting on the Day of ‘Arafah, the ninth of Dhu’l-Hijjah, and affirms that it expiates the sins of the previous year. As for the coming year, the remission of future sins is a privilege granted only to the Prophet ﷺ, for Allah says, “that Allah may forgive you your…"