The Fake News about Fasting the Day of Arafat

There is a video circulating in the social media praising the fasting of the day of Arat attributed to to saying of the prophet.Fasting that day is considered a good deed and certainly Allah will reward for that, but claiming tha He will forgive your sins of the past and next year is far fetching. There are two sides to this. Allah is capable of everything, however being the just, He may forgive sins committed against his commands and that is reasonable, but claiming that He forgives all the sins like those that one may commit againt me,does not reflect Allah’s justice since He promised me the right to claim reparations and accountability from the the individual who harmed me and committed evil acts against my person.

Will Allah forgive,for instance Mr. Lahjoumri who fired me from my teaching job at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Rabat in 1980 without cause except jealousy, just because he is fasting the day of Arafat ?He has also harmed others. Is Allah just in forgiving him on behalf of all those he may have harmed ? Divine justice is the highest justice that can be imagined, but as far as sins committed against his commands, like praying or fasting and the like are concerned. Allah has promised that I will get justice and I will hold Mr. Lahjomri  and all those who harmed me accountable and responsible. I will insist on retribution and punishment since it is my rights which have been transgressed and not Allah’s. A guy in Iraq who sent a rocket and killed a whole family and fasted the day of Arafat, Will Allah’s justice absolve him and forgive his terrorism and criminal acts against those whose life he destroyed ? ? Say, the guy was launching rockets every day against innocent people till the day of Arafat and he fasted. Is it reasonalbe to expect Allah’s mercy and forgiveness in this and similar cases ? Is that Allah‘s justice?One day of fasting and all the yearly sins are washed, though thet may include sins against humans ?

 People need to think seriously about that attribution to the prophet. A little thinking would lead to the impossibility for the prophet to say that.

The second side of this concerns the sins of the next year. Is  it really reasonable to claim that one day of fasting(the day of Arafat) will wash all those sins that one could could commit next year ? The hadith attributed to the prophet here is really a lie on serious examination and a licence to justify all kinds of malicious and evil actions for a whole year and fast one day, that day being Arafat, an important sacred one, for that and seriously think and expect that doing so will absolve us from our sins and crimes of a whole year ? This sheer fake new attributed to the prophet. This is exactly like the fake news about performing haj. It is alleged that the prophet said performing haj will wash all one’s since and become like an innocent new born baby since all his sins will be washed by performing that religious obligation.He will become like a tabula rasa and can start from ground zero which is not the case with fasting Arafat. Fasting the day of Arafat is not a religious obligation and only the past and future years sins are claimed to be forgiven .

It is this is the kind of nonsense and fake news about the prophet’s saying that many scholars have in mind when they question and reject many hadith attributed to the saying of the prophet.

Fasting the day of Arafat is great and a voluntary act  that Allah will reward, but forgiving all one’s past yealy sins and those of next year does not hold ground and the prophet cannot in his right mind say that.

I hope that people think seriously about Allah's forgiveness. He can certainly forgive transgressions of his commands,but it does not make sense that He promised to forgive transgressions that people commit agaist each other. What  kind of evils acts an individual may commit the year after he has fasted the day of Arafat is not known and they may be great atrocities and capital sins ( kabair). Is Allah just if He forgives the crimes one may commit in a year by  fasting just one day ? I find that unreasonable for the reasons stated above.

Genuine Muslims have to seriously question what the chalatans and the pseudo-religious fuqaha are spreading about the prophet of Islam. They must indeed go and read the word of Allah in the Quran, the true source of all Islamic teachings and legislation. It is clearly stated there in the following verses and in many others that :

1. فَمَن يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ خَيْرًا يَرَهُ ﴿الزلزلة: ٧﴾

2. وَمَن يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ شَرًّا يَرَهُ ﴿الزلزلة: ٨﴾

1. So, whoever does an atom’s weight of good  will see it.

2. And whoever doe an atom’s weight of evil will see it.

So, it accountability for all our deeds. God is forgiving, of course, but just and He rewards our deeds. We all resort to his justice against those who commits evil act against us no matter how many days they fast or how many pilgrimages they perform. Washing aone sins of an entire past and future yeas by fasting the day of Arafat is fake news about th saying of the prophet of Islam.

Dr. Abdekghani Bouchouar

Agadir, Peaceful Morocco

bouchouar@gmail.com