The Merits of Shaʿbān

ʿAlī b. Aḥmad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Aḥmad b. Abi ʿAbd Allāh al-Barqī narrated to us, from his father, from his grandfather, from Ibn Faḍḍāl, from Marwān b. Muslim [or Salam], from al-Ṣādiq, Jaʿfar b. Muḥammad, from his father, from his forefathers عليهم السلام, who reported that the Messenger of Allāh صلى الله عليه وعلى آله stated: “Shaʿbān is my month, and the month of Ramaḍān is that of Allāh, so whoever fasts a day from my month will have Heaven mandated upon him, and whoever fasts two days of it will be on the Day of Judgement counted from among the close friends of the Prophets and the truth-speakers, and whoever fasts the whole month and joins it to (the fasts of) the month of Ramaḍān, then that is repentance from every sin, cardinal or venial, even if it involved (the shedding of) forbidden blood.”