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Sha‘bān is the eighth month of the Hijrī calendar, as it comes in between Rajab and Ramadhan. It is named so because the pagan Arabs used to fork out in it and spread in the lands searching for water. They used to branch out in the raids, as Ibn Hajar said in Al-Fatḥ al-Bārī[i]  “Sha‘bān was named to employ them in seeking water or raids after the sacred month of Rajab.” There are plenty of authentic Aḥadīth in the virtues of the month of Sha‘bān. Here are some as follows:

1. Aishah (رضي الله عنه) said, “The Prophet ﷺ used to fast until we say: He does not break his fast, and he used to break his fast until we say: He does not fast, and I did not see the Prophet ﷺ continued fasting a month except Ramadhan, and I did not see him fasting most of the days except in Sha‘bān”.[ii]
2. Aishah (رضي الله عنه) said: “The most beloved month to the Prophet ﷺ for fasting was Sha‘bān and continuing it in Ramadhan.”[iii]
3. Umm Salamah (رضي الله عنه)reported, “I did not see the Prophet ﷺ fasting for two consecutive months except Sha‘bān and Ramadhan”.[iv]
4. Usamah bin Zayd (رضي الله عنه) asked: “O Messenger of God, I have not seen you fasting in any month (other than Ramadhan) like the way you fast in the month of Sha‘bān.” He said: “This is a month that people overlook between Rajab and Ramadhan, and it is a month in which deeds are raised to the Lord of the worlds. I want my deeds to be raised while I am fasting.”[v]
5. Abu Musa al-Ash'ari (رضي الله عنه), reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: “God will rise on the night of the half of Sha‘bān and forgive all his creation except for an idolater or an antagonistic.”[vi]

Ibn Mājah narrates this hadīth with a weak chain of narration, but he has many pieces of evidence (Shawāhid). That is why Albānī authenticated it with many chains while Imam Ibn al-Jawzī and others have weakened the hadīth. Muslim narrated in his Ṣaḥīḥ a hadīth of Imran bin Husayn that the Prophet ﷺsaid to him or someone else: “Did you fast in the middle of Sha‘bān?” He said: “No.” Thereupon he (the Prophet ﷺ) said: “If you did not fast, then you should fast for two days.”[vii] Ibn Rajab said in Laṭā’if (Laṭā’if al-Ma'arif) that “ The Tābiʿūn of Shām used to praise God and strive for worship in the night of the middle of Sha‘bān.”[viii] Ibn Taymiyyah said in Fatāwā that “The night of the middle of Sha‘bān has many virtues and people of Salaf used to worship in the night. However, gathering in a mosque to revive the night is Bidʿah.[ix]

6. As narrated by Abu Hurairah (رضي الله عنه) the Prophet ﷺ said: “When it is the middle of Sha‘bān, do not fast.” reported by Abū Dāwūd, he is not sure about the authenticity.

scholars have different views in fasting after the middle of Sha‘bān. Most of the scholars opine that is not prohibited. However, if a person is in the habit of observing Sawm (fasting) on a particular day (which may fall on these dates), he may fast on that day.”[x]

Muslim scholars gave utmost consideration for Sha‘bān for the cause of preparing for Ramaḍān. Salamah ibn Kuhayl said, “the month of Sha‘bān is the month of Qurrā’ (Reciters).” When Sha‘bān comes, ʿAmr bin Qays used to close his shop and get ready to read the Qur’ān. Abu Bakr al-Balkhī said: “Rajab is the month of planting, Sha‘bān is the month of watering the crops, and Ramadhan is the month of the harvest of crops. Ramadhan is like rain, and whoever does not sow in Rajab, and not water in Sha‘bān, how can he reap in Ramadhan?”[xi]

O Allah, expand to us some of Your blessings, mercy and favour and give us provision! O Allah, we ask You for the abiding blessing which is neither changed nor removed. O Allah, we ask You for blessing on the Day of Utter Poverty and security on the Day of Fear. O Allah, we seek refuge to You from the evil of what You give us. O Allah, make us love belief and adorn our hearts with it. Make us hate disbelief, deviance and rebellion. Place us among the rightly-guided. O Allah, make us die as Muslims and make us live as Muslims and join us to the rightly, acting, who are neither disappointed nor afflicted.

اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ لَنَا فِي رَجَبٍ وَشَعْبَانَ وَبَلِّغْنَا رَمَضَانَ

O Allah, bless us in Rajab and Sha'ban and bring us to Ramadhan[xii]  

Reference

[i] Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani, Fatḥ al-Bārī fī Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, vol. 4, p.251

[ii] Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj, Sahīh Muslim, Chapter on the Prophet’s fasting other than Ramadān and desirability of mot leaving a month without fasting, Hadīth 2777

[iii] Al-Nasā'ī, Sunan an-Nasāi, The Book of Fasting, Hadīth 2350

[iv] Tirmidhī, Sunan a-Tirmiḏẖi, Book of Fasting, Hadīth 741

[v] Al-Nasā'ī, Sunan an-Nasāi, The Book of Fasting, Hadīth 2359

[vi] Ibn Majah, Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadīth 1148

[vii] Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj, Sahīh Muslim, Book of Fasting, Hadīth 2607

[viii] Ibn Rajab, Laṭā’if al-Ma’arif, p.138

[ix] Ibn Taymiyyah, Fatawa al-Kubra, vol. 4, p.428

[x] Muḥammad ibn Ismā‘īl al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukharī, Hadīth 1914

[xi] Ibn Rajab, Laṭā’if al-Ma’arif, p. 138.

[xii] Hadith and Du’a: https://sunnah.com

(Dr.Mohamed Aslam Akbar Hasani is an Assistant Professor in Shari'ah Sciences at the Department of Economics, Kulliyyah of Economics and Management Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). He currently teaches undergraduate courses in Islamic commercial jurisprudence, Islamic economics and conducts research on the classical works of Muslim scholarship in economic thought and Maqāsid al-Shariah based developments.)