Ill-fated Days
Ill-fated Days (Arabic: الأَيَّام النَّحِسَات, al-ayyām al-niḥāsāt) are unfortunate and infelicitous days when nothing happens but evil. In the glorious Qur'an, this word has been used for the people of 'Ad twice[1]. Also, in hadiths, some days are described as infelicity. Exegetes have different views about how to describe "infelicity of days"; however, happening different unfortunate events in those days, making the spirit of invoking God and the punishment for one's own deeds are believed to be among the reasons of this phenomenon.
Meaning
"Nahs" has been interpreted as "unfortunate", "ill-fated", "evil" and "unlucky".[2] It has originally been interpreted as the horizon when turning into redness, like the flame of a smokeless fire or red-hot copper.[3] They call "ill-fated (nahs) days", those days when nothing happens except evil and one's activities are unblessed.[4]
The word "Nahs" has been mentioned in the glorious Qur'an about the people of 'Ad twice. In Qur'an 54:19, it is mentioned,
| “ | Indeed We unleashed upon them an icy gale on an incessantly ill-fated day. | ” |
and Qur'an 41:16 mentions,
| “ | So We unleashed upon them an icy gale during ill-fated days, in order that We might make them taste a humiliating punishment in the life of the world. Yet the punishment of the Hereafter will be surely more disgraceful, and they will not be helped. | ” |
which refers to the disgraceful punishment for the people of 'Ad on ill-fated days while it considers the punishment of the Hereafter more disgraceful for them.
In Shi'a hadith sources too, there are many hadiths about ill-fated nature of the days of the week such as Monday and Wednesday as well as certain Arabic, Persian and Roman months.[5] However, most of these hadiths have been considered weak and unreliable due to lack of chain of transmission, being mursal[6] or mixed with forged and superstitious hadiths and only few of them have been considered having reliable chains of transmission.[7]
Unfortunateness of Days
Exegetes have different opinions about describing time as ill-fated. Allama Tabataba'i believed that there is no reason for considering some days or times ill-fated; because, units of time are equal in extent and there is no difference between one day and another, so that one of them would be considered ill-fated and another fortunate.[8] On the contrary, Tafsir-i nimuna does not consider describing days as ill-fated or fortunate intellectually impossible; but, it believes that there is no intellectual way of reasoning to prove or reject that. Finally, it says that if there are religious reasons for it, they have to be accepted.[9]
Reason for Describing Days as Ill-fated
In hadiths, some reasons have been mentioned for describing days of the week or months as ill-fated:
- Happening frequent unfortunate events at that time; such as the demise of the Prophet (s), martyrdom of Imam al-Husayn (a), casting the Prophet Abraham (a) onto the fire and the infliction of divine punishment upon different people which have been mentioned as the reason for describing some days ill-fated. By considering a certain day ill-fated, these hadiths mean to attract people's attention toward the events happened in that day, so that they avoid doing anything which incurs punishment.[10] In such days, respecting those who have received a suffering has been emphasized and it is advised to abandon common activities and ignoring pleasures.[11]
- Creating the spirit of entreaty and awareness towards God and asking Him for help, to remain safe on the days called "ill-fated (nahs).[12] In some hadiths, almsgiving, reciting supplications and the Qur'an, trusting in God and asking His mercy are emphasized on these days.[13]
- After mentioning a hadith from Imam al-Hadi (a)[14], 'Allama Tabataba'i mentioned that the only factor for the days to be unfortunate is people's taking things for a bad omen because this has a real influence on people's lives and these hadiths try to free people from the evil of superstitions.[15] According to the views of others too, happening unfortunate events to people on some days is a return of their wrong deeds and days have no direct influence on or relation with those events.[16]
Unfortunateness of the Month of Safar
Some common people refer to a hadith from the noble Prophet (s) and consider the month of Safar ill-fated and congratulate its end to each other and celebrate the beginning of the month of Rabi' al-Awwal;[17] while, in hadith references, that hadith has been mentioned to praise the personality of Abu Dhar al-Ghifari and has no relation with unfortunateness of the month of Safar.[18]
Notes
- ↑ For more details, refer Qur'an 54:19 and Qur'an 41: 16.
- ↑ Dihkhudā, Lughatnāma, vol. 14, under the word «نحس».
- ↑ Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, Mufradāt alfāẓ al-Qurʾān, p. 794.
- ↑ Ṭabāṭabāyī, al-Mīzān, vol. 19, p. 71.
- ↑ See: Kulaynī, al-Kāfī, vol. 8, p. 255; Ṣadūq, al-Khiṣāl, vol. 2, p. 384; Majlisī, Biḥār al-anwār, vol. 56, p. 18, 23, 54.
- ↑ Ṭabāṭabāyī, al-Mīzān, vol. 19, p. 72.
- ↑ Makārim Shīrāzī, Tafsīr-i nimūna, vol. 23, p. 42.
- ↑ Ṭabāṭabāyī, al-Mīzān, vol. 19, p. 115-116.
- ↑ Makārim Shīrāzī, Tafsīr-i nimūna, vol. 23, p. 41.
- ↑ Makārim Shīrāzī, Tafsīr-i nimūna, vol. 23, p. 44.
- ↑ Ṭabāṭabāyī, al-Mīzān, vol. 19, p. 72.
- ↑ Makārim Shīrāzī, Tafsīr-i nimūna, vol. 23, p. 45.
- ↑ Ṭūsī, al-Amālī, p. 224.
- ↑ One of the companions of Imam al-Hadi (a) said, "One day, I wanted to go to Imam (a), but unfortunate events happened to me and I associated them with the unfortunateness of that day. When I went to Imam (a), he (a) admonished me for why I accused the days, when I met the punishment of my wrong deeds and I take things for bad omen."(Ibn Shu'ba Harrani, Tuhaf al-'uqul, 1404 AH, p. 482).
- ↑ Ṭabāṭabāyī, al-Mīzān, vol. 19, p. 74.
- ↑ Makārim Shīrāzī, Tafsīr-i nimūna, vol. 23, p. 46-47.
- ↑ Mīrdāmād, al-Rawāshiḥ al-samāwīyya, p. 202.
- ↑ Ṣadūq, ʿIlal al-sharāyiʿ, p. 176.
References
- Dihkhudā, ʿAlī Akbar. Lughatnāma. Terhan: Dānishgāh-i Tehran, 1377 Sh.
- Kulaynī. Muḥammad b. Yaʿqūb al-. Al-Kāfī. Edited by ʿAlī Akbar Ghaffārī & Muḥammad Ākhūndī. Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīyya, 1407 AH.
- Majlisī, Muḥammad Bāqir al-. Biḥār al-anwār. Second edition. Beirut: Muʾassisat al-Wafāʾ, 1403 AH.
- Makārim Shīrāzī, Nāṣir. Tafsīr-i nimūna. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīyya, 1374 Sh.
- Mīrdāmād, Muḥammad Bāqir al-. Al-Rawāshiḥ al-samāwīyya fī sharḥ al-aḥādīth al-imāmīyya. Qom: Dār al-Khilāfa, 1311 AH.
- Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, Ḥusayn b. Muḥammad. Mufradāt alfāẓ al-Qurʾān. Beirut-Damascus: Dār al-ʿIlm-Dār al-Shāmīyya, 1412 AH.
- Ṣadūq, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-. Al-Khiṣāl. Edited by ʿAlī Akbar Ghaffārī. Qom: Daftar-i Intishārāt-i Islāmī, 1362 Sh.
- Ṣadūq, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-. ʿIlal al-sharāyiʿ. Qom: Dāwarī, 1385 Sh.
- Ṭabāṭabāyī, Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusayn. Al-Mīzān. Beirut: Muʾassisat al-Aʿlamī li-l-Maṭbūʿāt, 1390 AH.
- Ṭūsī, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan. Al-Amālī. Qom: Dār al-Thiqāfa, 1414 AH.