LONDON – Just like millions of Muslims around the world, Shehroze Khan was fasting on Thursday, September 20, marking the Islamic festive day of Ashura on the 10th of the first Hijri month of Muharram.

But he had what he described as “a bad day”, in which he had to play squash barefooted…and lost his wallet.

“I go home, in my spiritual mindset, not letting the annoyance of the previous incident affect me – I’m fasting, I’m lucky to own shoes, I’m not going to let some non-marked shoes ruin my mood! On the way home, I get off the bus and realize just a minute later – I DON’T HAVE MY WALLET!” shocked Khan wrote on Ilmfeed.

Upset about the lost wallet and cards, Khan made a prayer that he could get it back.

Good news came on Friday when a Jewish man called him and said he had his wallet.

During Khan’s Friday prayer the phone buzzed. “As my phone is silent I proceed to listen to the sermon – it’s all about Moses, and the Hebrews, and how we fast on the day of Ashura to commemorate the day Moses liberated the Israelites. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) commanded Muslims to fast out of their love for Moses.”

Khan recalled the number after the prayer to find a guy telling him he had the missing wallet.

He drove directly to the man who handed the wallet to him while saying he was going to observe the Sabbath and so his phones would have been off if Khan had called a few hours later!

“I couldn’t thank this guy enough – I told him I was fasting to celebrate what was essentially a Jewish day of festivity too. And this guy tells me he had fasted for 26 hours to celebrate Yom Kippur – which as I understand, came from that same tradition!” Khan remarked.

“The world can be dark and gloomy, but sometimes, just sometimes, it really is a beautiful place, where a Muslim and a Jew from different sides of London who happen to be fasting for the same reason, can be connected by a lost wallet.”

Fasting the 9th and the 10th of Muharram is a Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) that goes back to a long time before Imam Hussein.

This year, Muslims and Jews fasted together, as Muslims marked Ashura and Jew marked Yom Kippur.

For Sunnis, `Ashura’ marks the day that Prophet Musa, peace be upon him, was saved from Egypt’s pharaoh.

Muslim scholars have agreed that it is good to fast on the day of `Ashura’, although it is not obligatory.