Ashura: History and Fasting
Every year, when the month of Muharram arrives, Muslims across the world fast on the day of Ashura — the tenth day of the month. It is one of the most loved voluntary fasts in Islam: a day the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ fasted himself, ordered his followers to fast, and linked to one of the greatest events in the history of the prophets — the rescue of Musa (peace be upon him) and his people from Pharaoh.
But what exactly happened on this day? Why did the Prophet ﷺ honour it so greatly? And how should a Muslim keep this fast today? The answers are preserved in the authentic narrations of Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, and together they tell a story of rescue, gratitude, and a bond between the prophets that crosses the centuries.
In the pages below we will walk through the story exactly as those narrations tell it: the day itself and the month it belongs to, the rescue of Bani Israel and the fall of Pharaoh, the reason Musa fasted, the Prophet’s ﷺ claim of closeness to Musa, his own fast and his command, the rank he gave to fasting in Muharram, and finally the practical question of how to keep this fast today.
1. What Is the Day of Ashura?
Ashura is the tenth day of Muharram, the month the Prophet ﷺ singled out with a remarkable title: he called it the month of Allah. Among all the months of the year, Muharram alone carries this name in his words, and its fast carries a rank no other voluntary fast is given — as we will see below, he called the fast of this month the most excellent fast after Ramadan itself.
The story of the Ashura fast begins in Madinah, shortly after the Prophet’s ﷺ arrival there. Ibn Abbas reported what happened when the Prophet ﷺ saw the Jewish community of the city fasting:
“The Prophet (ﷺ) came to Medina and saw the Jews fasting on the day of Ashura. He asked them about that.” (Sahih al-Bukhari 2004 — Sahih)
The Prophet ﷺ did not simply pass by. He asked what the day meant — and the answer he received reached back more than a thousand years, to the time of Musa (peace be upon him).
2. A Good Day: The Rescue of Bani Israel
The reply the Prophet ﷺ was given is recorded in the same narration of Ibn Abbas:
“This is a good day, the day on which Allah rescued Bani Israel from their enemy. So, Moses fasted this day.” (Sahih al-Bukhari 2004 — Sahih)
This is the history of Ashura in a single sentence. On this day, Allah rescued Bani Israel — the children of Israel, the people of Musa — from their enemy, Pharaoh, the tyrant who had enslaved them and pursued them as they fled Egypt. The rescue of an oppressed people and the downfall of their oppressor took place on the tenth of Muharram, and Musa marked the day in the way prophets mark Allah’s favours: he fasted it.
Notice what kind of day Ashura is. It is not remembered as a day of mourning or sorrow, but as the Jews of Madinah themselves described it — “a good day,” a day of deliverance worth celebrating. The fast of Ashura is, at its heart, a fast of joy and thankfulness for Allah’s rescue of the believers of an earlier age.
3. Victory over Pharaoh: The Same Day in Muslim’s Narration
Sahih Muslim preserves the same event with further detail. Ibn Abbas reported that when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ came to Madinah and found the Jews fasting Ashura, he asked them about the day’s significance, and they answered:
“It is the day of great (significance) when Allah delivered Moses and his people, and drowned the Pharaoh and his people, and Moses observed fast out of gratitude and we also observe it.” (Sahih Muslim 1130c — Sahih)
Here the picture is completed. The deliverance of Musa and his people and the drowning of Pharaoh and his people happened on the same day — salvation for the believers and destruction for the tyrant who had defied Allah. And the reason for the fast is stated plainly: “Moses observed fast out of gratitude.” The fast was Musa’s thanksgiving, and the community that inherited his memory kept fasting it after him, year after year, in gratitude to Allah.
Another narration in Sahih Muslim describes the event in strikingly similar words:
“It is the day on which Allah granted victory to Moses and (his people) Bani Isra’il over the Pharaoh and we observe fast out of gratitude to Him.” (Sahih Muslim 1130a — Sahih)
Victory, deliverance, gratitude — these are the three notes on which the whole history of Ashura is built.
4. A Fast of Gratitude
It is worth pausing on that word: gratitude. Fasting is usually associated with patience and self-denial, but the fast of Ashura was born as an act of thanksgiving. Musa (peace be upon him) had just witnessed the greatest rescue of his people’s history — an enemy that had enslaved them for generations destroyed in a single morning — and his response was to fast: to hold back from food and drink for the sake of the One who had saved them.
That is the spirit in which the Ashura fast is kept to this day. The believer who fasts on the tenth of Muharram is joining a fast of gratitude that stretches back to Musa himself — thanking Allah not only for the blessings in his own life, but for His timeless pattern of rescuing those who believe in Him and trust Him. When you fast Ashura, you are quite literally fasting the fast of Musa, kept alive across the centuries and handed to this ummah by its Prophet ﷺ.
There is a lesson in this for every believer. The natural response to a blessing, in the way of the prophets, is not feasting but fasting — not indulgence, but devotion. Musa’s people had been saved from the worst tyranny on earth; his thanks took the form of worship that cost him his comfort for a day. Gratitude that costs something is gratitude that means something, and that is precisely the kind of gratitude this fast teaches. The one who fasts Ashura tastes hunger willingly while remembering a people who escaped slavery — and his own heart learns to thank Allah with more than words.
5. “We Have More Claim over Moses Than You”
The Prophet’s ﷺ response to what he heard is one of the most beautiful statements in the whole story. He did not reject the fast, and he did not treat Musa as the prophet of another people. He said:
“We have more claim over Moses than you.” (Sahih al-Bukhari 2004 — Sahih)
In Muslim’s narration, the words are fuller still:
“We have more right, and we have a closer connection with Moses than you have” (Sahih Muslim 1130c — Sahih)
And in the other narration of Sahih Muslim, Ibn Abbas reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ declared:
“We have a closer connection with Moses than you have” (Sahih Muslim 1130a — Sahih)
This is the Islamic view of the prophets in miniature. Musa (peace be upon him) is not a stranger to the followers of Muhammad ﷺ; he is their prophet too — a messenger of the same Allah, carrying the same call to the same truth. The Muslims do not fast Ashura in imitation of anyone. They fast it because the day belongs to the shared history of all the prophets, and because their connection to Musa — through faith in everything he brought — is closer than any connection of blood or custom. When a Muslim fasts on Ashura, he is claiming that inheritance: gratitude for Musa’s rescue, from Musa’s own wider family of faith.
6. The Prophet Fasted It and Ordered His Ummah to Fast
Words were followed by action. Bukhari’s narration closes with what the Prophet ﷺ did next:
“So, the Prophet fasted on that day and ordered (the Muslims) to fast (on that day).” (Sahih al-Bukhari 2004 — Sahih)
Muslim’s narration ends the same way:
“so Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) observed fast (on the day of ‘Ashura), and gave orders that it should be observed.” (Sahih Muslim 1130c — Sahih)
From that day in Madinah, the fast of Ashura entered the life of this ummah — not as a borrowed custom, but as the Prophet’s ﷺ own practice, established by his fast and his command together. The companions fasted it, and generation after generation of Muslims have fasted it ever since, keeping alive both the memory of Musa’s rescue and the practice of the Prophet ﷺ who honoured that memory.
7. The Most Excellent Fast After Ramadan
If any doubt remained about the rank of this fast, the Prophet ﷺ settled it with a statement that places the whole month of Muharram — and Ashura at its heart — at the very top of voluntary fasting. Abu Huraira reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“The most excellent fast after Ramadan is God’s month. al-Muharram, and the most excellent prayer after what is prescribed is prayer during the night.” (Sahih Muslim 1163a — Sahih)
Notice, too, that the Prophet ﷺ praised the fast of the month as a whole, not of one day only. Muharram is a month made for fasting: its days are the finest days of the year for voluntary fasts, and a believer may fast from it as much as he is able, with the day of Ashura standing at its centre. The one who fasts only Ashura has taken the month’s crown; the one who fasts more of the month alongside it has taken hold of the Prophet’s ﷺ praise in its fullest sense.
Consider what this means. Of all the fasts a Muslim may keep outside Ramadan — the six fasts of Shawwal, the Mondays and Thursdays, the white days, the day of Arafah — the fast the Prophet ﷺ named the most excellent of all is the fast of Allah’s month, al-Muharram. And within Muharram, no day carries the history, the gratitude, and the prophetic practice that the day of Ashura carries. This is why the believers have always treated the tenth of Muharram with such eagerness: it is the crown of the best month for voluntary fasting in the year. The same narration, by the way, honours another treasure of Muharram’s quiet nights — the night prayer, the most excellent prayer after the prescribed ones. A month whose days hold the finest voluntary fast and whose nights hold the finest voluntary prayer is a month no believer should let pass unused. You can explore more of these in our guide to the virtues of fasting.
8. How to Fast Ashura Today
So how should the fast be kept? Keep it the way its story teaches: as a fast of gratitude, kept with intention and joy, in the company of the other fasts of Allah’s month.
Fast the tenth of Muharram — the day of Ashura itself — and fast a day together with it: the ninth before it, or the eleventh after it. Do not keep the fast on the tenth alone; pairing it with a neighbouring day is the way this fast is observed. Beyond that, let the day carry the spirit of its history: remember Musa and his people at the sea, thank Allah for His rescue of the believers then and His favours to you now, and fill the day with remembrance and dua for forgiveness and gratitude.
The Ashura fast is a voluntary fast — there is no sin on the one who does not keep it — but it is a voluntary fast of the very highest rank, practised by the Prophet ﷺ himself and ranked by him above every other fast outside Ramadan. It sits within a wider family of beloved fasts across the year, which you can survey in our overview of the types of fasting and our collection of voluntary fasts in Islam. Few single days offer so much: a link to Musa, a share in the Prophet’s ﷺ own practice, and the best fast of the best month — all in one dawn-to-sunset of gratitude.
So when Muharram comes, mark the days on your calendar early. Set the intention the night before, rise for suhoor, and spend the day the way its history deserves: remembering the sea that parted for the believers, the tyrant it closed over, and the prophet who fasted in thanks. Then break your fast with a heart that has rehearsed the oldest lesson of this day — that Allah rescues those who trust Him, and that the right answer to rescue is gratitude.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the day of Ashura? A: Ashura is the tenth day of Muharram. It is the day on which Allah rescued Bani Israel from their enemy and granted victory to Musa and his people over Pharaoh, as Ibn Abbas reported (Sahih al-Bukhari 2004 — Sahih; Sahih Muslim 1130a — Sahih).
Q: Why did Musa fast on Ashura? A: Out of gratitude to Allah. When Allah delivered Musa and his people and drowned Pharaoh and his people, Musa observed the fast in thankfulness — “Moses observed fast out of gratitude” (Sahih Muslim 1130c — Sahih).
Q: Why do Muslims fast on Ashura? A: Because the Prophet ﷺ declared the Muslims’ connection with Musa to be the closest of all — “We have more claim over Moses than you” — and then fasted the day himself and ordered the Muslims to fast it (Sahih al-Bukhari 2004 — Sahih).
Q: Which days should I fast for Ashura? A: Fast the tenth of Muharram together with a day alongside it — the ninth with it, or the eleventh — rather than keeping the tenth on its own.
Q: What is the virtue of fasting in Muharram? A: The Prophet ﷺ said: “The most excellent fast after Ramadan is God’s month. al-Muharram, and the most excellent prayer after what is prescribed is prayer during the night” (Sahih Muslim 1163a — Sahih). The fast of this month is the finest voluntary fast of the year.