The Fasting of the Messenger of Allah, O Allah, grant compensation to Muhammad and his family worthy of their services to Your cause

6. Abu Ali al-Ash’ariy has narrated from Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Jabbar and Muhammad ibn Isma‘il from al-Fadl ibn Shadhan all from Safwan from ibn Muskan from al-Halabiy who has said the following: “Once, I asked abu ‘Abd Allah عليه السلام, ‘Had any of your ancestors ever fasted during the month of Sha‘ban?’ He (the Imam) replied, ‘The best of my ancestors, the Messenger of Allah, O Allah, grant compensation to Muhammad and his family worthy of their services to Your cause, fasted in it.’” Ali ibn Ibrahim has narrated from Muhammad ibn ‘Isa ibn ‘Ubayd from Yunus from ibn Muskan from al-Halabiy from abu ‘Abd Allah عليه السلام, a similar Hadith. There are narrations about fasting in the month of al-Sha‘ban. He (the Imam) عليه السلام, was asked about it and he (the Imam) said, ‘The Messenger of Allah, O Allah, grant compensation to Muhammad and his family worthy of their services to Your cause, did not fast (during the month of Sha‘ban) neither did any of my ancestors.’ He (the Imam) said, ‘It is because certain people said that fasting in the month of al-Sha‘ban is obligatory like fasting in the month of Ramadan. If one destroys one day of fasting of month of al-Sha‘ban, the expiation for it is like the expiation for destroying one day of fasting of the month of Ramadan. The words of the scholar عليه السلام, ‘The Messenger of Allah did not fast neither did any of my ancestors’ means they did not fast it as an obligatory fast. It was to refute what certain people thought it to be. Their fast was only as Sunnah in which there is virtue but it is not harmful to one who does not fast.