Ayyam al-Bid (white days)
Ayyam al-Bid
Ayyām al-Bīḍ (Arabic:ایّام البیض) (literally means white days) are 13th, 14th and 15th of each lunar month. Hadiths have emphasized fasting these days. Ayyam al-Bid of the month of Rajab followed by that of Sha’ban and Ramadan are very important for Shi’a.
Etymology
“Bid”, in Arabic, means white. One of the ancient Arab traditions was naming the days of a month according to the brightness of the moon. Since the moon is in its brightest phases during these days, they were called Ayyam al-Bid (white days).[1] The other names of these days are Awadih and Ghurr.
Fasting in Ayyam al-Bid
According to narrations fasting three days of each month was an admirable act before Islam and was called “the Prophet Ibrahim (a)’s fasting”.[2] The Prophet (s) encouraged people to continue this tradition and fast during Ayyam al-Bid.[3]
Multiple hadiths that denote fasting three days in a month is recommended suggest different days in a month. Some just counted fasting the 13th of each month as recommended,[4] the other narrates from Imam al-Sadiq (a) that the Prophet (s) fasted three days of a lunar month: “the first and the last Thursday and the first Wednesday from the second ten-day.”[5] There are also neutral hadiths that just denote the Istihbab of fasting three days in a month.[6]
Anyway, based on those hadiths, jurists have different opinions specifying the three days in which fasting is recommended, whether they are Ayyam al-Bid or not.[7]
Significance of Ayyam al-Bid of Rajab
Ayyam al-Bid of the month of Rajab followed by that of Sha’ban and Ramadan are very important among Shi’a.[8] I’tikaf is one of the recommended acts that are prevalent during Ayyam al-Bid of Rajab in Iran.
Notes
Farrāʾ, al-Ayyām wa l-layālī wa l-shuhūr, p. 58; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān, vol. 3, p. 573.
Nisāʾī, Sunan al-Nisāʾī, vol. 4, p. 222-223.
Ibn Saʿd, al-Ṭabaqāt al-kubrā, vol. 7, p. 43; Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, Musnad, vol. 5, p. 27-28, 150-152.
Ibn Saʿd, al-Ṭabaqāt al-kubrā, vol. 7, p. 43; Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, Musnad, vol. 5, p. 27-28, 150-152.
Ṣadūq, Man lā yaḥḍuruh al-faqīh, vol. 2, p. 84.
Nisāʾī, Sunan al-Nisāʾī, vol. 4, p. 222-223.
See: Ṣadūq, Man lā yaḥḍuruh al-faqīh, vol. 2, p. 84; Ṭūsī, Tahdhīb al-aḥkām, vol. 4, p. 296; Ibn Ṭāwūs, al-Drūʿ al-wāqīya, p. 66.
Malikī Tabrīzī, al-Murāqibāt, p. 62; Qumī, Mafātīḥ al-jinān, p. 201-202.
References
Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal. Musnad. Beirut: Dār al-Ṣādir, [n.d].
Farrāʾ, Yaḥya b. Zayd al-. Al-Ayyām wa l-layālī wa l-shuhūr. Edited by Ibrāhīm al-Abyārī. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīyya, 1400 AH.
Ibn Kathīr, Ismāʿīl b. ʿUmar. Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿaẓīm. Beirut: [n.p], 1401 AH.
Ibn Saʿd, Muḥammad b. Manīʿ al-Baṣrī. Al-Ṭabaqāt al-kubrā. Edited by Iḥsān ʿAbbās. Beirut: Dār al-Ṣādir, 1968.
Ibn Ṭāwūs, ʿAlī b. Mūsā. Al-Durūʿ al-wāqīya. Qom: Muʾassisat Āl al-Bayt li-Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth, 1414 AH.
Malikī Tabrīzī, Jawād. Al-Murāqibāt. Beirut: [n.p], 1407 AH.
Nisāʾī, Aḥmad b. ʿAlī al-. Sunan al-Nisāʾī. Edited by Jalāl al-Dīn Suyūṭī. Aleppo: Maktab al-Maṭbūʿāt al-Islāmīyya, [n.d].
Qumī, Shaykh ʿAbbās. Mafātīḥ al-jinān. Beirut: [n.d], 1412 AH.
Ṣadūq, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-. Man lā yaḥḍuruh al-faqīh. Qom: Daftar-i Nashr-i Islāmī, 1404 AH.
Ṭūsī, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-. Tahdhīb al-aḥkām. Edited by Ḥasan Mūsawī Khurāsān. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīyya, 1364 Sh.