Is There Any Special Virtue in Spending on Family on the Day of Ashura?

Written by: Ghulam Mustafa Zaheer Amrpuri

Spending on Family on the Day of Ashura
It is commonly said that feeding one's family with special and sumptuous meals on the day of Ashura and spending generously on them will result in prosperity and abundance for the entire upcoming year. However, this specific virtue attached to Ashura is not proven from authentic Islamic sources.

❀ Associating specific acts with specific days is a matter of Shari'ah, and no individual is permitted to assign special practices to any day without clear evidence.
All narrations regarding spending generously on family on Ashura are weak and unauthentic. Here is a detailed review:

✿ Analysis of the Narrations:​

➊ Narration from Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (رضي الله عنه):
"Whoever expands his spending upon his family on the day of Ashura, Allah will expand for him throughout the year."

• Sources: (Al-Du'afa al-Kabir by Al-Aqeeli 3/252, Al-Mu'jam al-Kabir by Al-Tabarani 10/77, Shu'ab al-Iman by Al-Bayhaqi 3513)
• Status: Fabricated
• Major Defects:
  
  • Haithem bin Shaddakh: Severely weak
  • Ali ibn Abi Talib al-Muhajir Bazzar: Unknown
  • Issues of chain narrators (An'anah) by Al-A'mash and Ibrahim al-Nakha'i
• Declared fabricated by scholars like Ibn Hajar, Al-Dhahabi, Ibn Hibban, and Al-Aqeeli.

➋ Other Chains:

• All supporting chains also suffer from serious weaknesses, such as unreliable narrators and unknown individuals.

➌ Narration from Abu Hurairah (رضي الله عنه):

• Also severely weak, containing narrators like Muhammad bin Dhakwan Jahdhami and Hajjaj bin Nasir, both discredited and abandoned by hadith critics.

➍ Narration from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri (رضي الله عنه):

• Similarly, suffers from defects such as unknown narrators and unreliable transmissions.

➎ Narration from Jabir ibn Abdullah (رضي الله عنه):

• Contains fabricators and forgers among the narrators.

➏ Narration from Abdullah ibn Umar (رضي الله عنه):

• Baatil (false) narration as declared by hadith masters like Al-Dhahabi.

➐ Mawqoof narration from Umar ibn al-Khattab (رضي الله عنه):

• Disconnected (Munqati') narration, not traceable directly to Umar.

✿ Scholars' Verdicts:​

• Imam Al-Aqeeli:
  "Nothing about this is authentic from the Prophet ﷺ."
• Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah:
  "All such reports about spending on family on Ashura, shaking hands, applying henna, wearing new clothes, bathing, etc., are fabricated. Nothing is authentic about Ashura except the virtue of fasting."
  (Minhaj al-Sunnah 7/39)
• Imam Ibn al-Qayyim:
  "None of these narrations are authentic. The only thing proven from the Prophet ﷺ regarding Ashura is the virtue of fasting."
  (Al-Manar al-Munif, p. 111)
  

🕮 Conclusion:

There is no authentic basis for the belief that spending lavishly on one's family on Ashura will bring about prosperity.
The only established Sunnah related to Ashura is fasting.

Hence, it is essential for Muslims to refrain from innovating or practicing rituals based on weak and fabricated reports.

وما علينا إلا البلاغ