only the most ignorant and misguided of people would commit. Others treated it (1) as a festival, and began spending more on that day—on that day (2)—on food and clothing. They also narrated fabricated hadiths concerning it, such as the saying:

“Whoever provides generously for his family on the day of ‘Āshūrā’, Allah will provide generously for him throughout the rest of his year.”

This hadith is a lie attributed to the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace (3). Harb al-Kirmānī said: “Ahmad ibn Hanbal was asked about this hadith and replied: ‘It has no basis.’”

What is known among hadith scholars is that Sufyān ibn ‘Uyaynah narrates it from Ibrāhīm ibn Muhammad ibn al-Muntashir, from his father, who said: “It has reached us that whoever provides generously for his family on the day of ‘Āshūrā’, Allah will provide generously for him throughout the rest of his year.” Ibn ‘Uyaynah said: “We have put this to the test for sixty years and found it to be true.”

I say: This Muhammad ibn al-Muntashir was one of the virtuous men of Kufa, but he did not mention from whom he had heard it or through whom it had reached him (4). There is no doubt that some of those prejudiced against al-Husayn propagated this so that the day of his killing would be made a festival. It thus spread among ignorant people who professed adherence to the Sunnah, to the point that a hadith was narrated claiming that such-and-such events occurred on the day of ‘Āshūrā’. They went so far as to claim that most events in the lives of the prophets occurred on that day: Joseph’s shirt reaching Jacob and the restoration of his sight, Job’s recovery, the ransoming of the one intended for sacrifice, and similar events.

This hadith is a fabricated lie. Ibn al-Jawzī included it in “Fabricated Reports” (5), although he had himself narrated it in his book “Light on