Answer

Wa`alaykum as-salamu wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

It is Sunnah to fast the first nine days of Dhul-Hijjah, especially the day of Arafah, for those who are not performing Hajj. This is confirmed by the following hadiths:

1- Abu Qatadah (may Allah be pleased with him) is reported to have said that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said:“Fasting on the day of Arafah is an expiation for two years, the year preceding it and the year following it. Fasting the day of Ashura is an expiation for the year preceding it.”(Reported by “the group,” except for Al-Bukhari and At-Tirmidhi)

2- One of the wives of the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “Allah’s Messenger used to fast the [first] nine days of Dhul-Hijjah, the day of Ashura, and three days of each month.” (Abu Dawud)

3- Uqbah ibn Aamr (may Allah be pleased with him) is reported to have said that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: “The day of Arafah [for those performing Hajj], the day of sacrifice, and the days of Tashreeq are `Eids (feasts) for us – the people of Islam – and they are days of eating and drinking.” (Ahmad, Abu Dawud, and An-Nasa’i)

 4- Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade fasting on the day of Arafah for one who is actually at Arafah. (Ahmad, Abu Dawud, An-Nasa’i, and Ibn Majah)

Allah Almighty knows best.

Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.