Are the supplications for the days of the month of Ramadan fabricated?

In the Name of Allah, the All-beneficent, the All-merciful

And blessings and peace be upon the noblest of creation, our master Muhammad, and his pure Family

And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings,

All respect and greetings to scholarly points of view. We will set out our opinion on the reported statement and on the daily supplications of the blessed month of Ramadan, and we will set out the opinion that we had prepared before explaining the supplications in the book “The One Coming from the Other World.” We mentioned in a footnote to the book's introduction, on page 11, that we have a treatise on the reliability of these supplications which we refrained from including so as not to distract from the aim of the book; that was in the year 1433 AH.

We will present the gist of the treatise with some modification in light of the claim of fabrication that some scholars have mentioned, and we will divide the discussion into three themes:

The first: On the claim that the supplications were fabricated.

The second: On the sources of the supplications.

The third: On the contextual indicators of the acceptability of the supplications.

We point out that what is intended by this treatise, despite the general principles it contains, is the short daily supplications of the month of Ramadan, the first of which begins with: “O Allah, make my fasting in it the fasting of those who fast, and my standing [in prayer] in it the standing of those who stand [in prayer], and awaken me in it from the slumber of the heedless; forgive me my offense in it, O God of the worlds, and pardon me, O Pardoner of the guilty.”

The First Theme: On the Claim That the Supplications Were Fabricated

It is clear that the claim that this or that supplication was fabricated by some person needs evidence to establish the claim; as long as no evidence exists, the claim falls and no trace of it remains.

Yes, the degree of reliability of supplications can be described, just as the scholars of hadith and of rijal (narrator criticism) classify narrations as sahih (sound), muwaththaq (trustworthy), muʿtabar (reliable), daʿif (weak) and so on; in this way the description is scholarly, so that the position taken towards them is then built upon the principle that the scholars of hadith adopt regarding the extent of its acceptance and its degree, according to the chosen principle.

It is established among the scholars of hadith that it is not permissible to narrate a fabricated hadith, once its fabrication has been established, whether in the domain of creed, of rulings, or of virtues, supplications and the like. Thus the rule of “whoever it reaches” (man balaghahu), which many scholars have affirmed regarding the acceptability of the evidences for recommended practices—its import as narrated being, as reported from Muhammad ibn Marwan, who said: I heard Abu Jaʿfar (a) say: “Whoever is reached by [news of] a reward from Allah for a deed, and performs that deed seeking that reward, will be given it, even if the hadith is not as it reached him”1—does not cover it, because a fabricated hadith is outside the sphere of the sound reaching of a narration, since it lacks the possibility of being authentic from the outset.

The supplications for the days of the blessed month of Ramadan are attributed to the Prophet (s) in mursal form (without a complete chain of transmission). It is known that mursal narrations have abundant benefits in the understanding of hadith; therefore most of the scholars of the community have inclined towards accepting many mursal narrations according to conditions and considerations that amount to contextual indicators raising the degree of the narration to the level of acceptance. How much more so, then, with narrations that, on the one hand, do not establish a ruling, and on the other hand are covered by the rule of “whoever it reaches” or of leniency in the evidences for recommended practices.

In the following point we will explain the grounds for the acceptability of the supplications of the days, while preserving the scholarly right not to accept them according to the principles that rely on the chain of transmission alone, or for other considerations; however, we affirm that the claim of fabrication cannot be accepted at all, since it lacks evidence.

It may be pointed out that fabrication is established through certain ways, among them:

1_ An explicit statement by a trustworthy and upright person, based on his sense-based knowledge, that this hadith is fabricated or that this narrator fabricated it.

2_ The narrator's confession of fabrication.

3_ That the narrator be one of the lying fabricators, according to what some have affirmed; rather, it has been said that the mere fact that the narrator is a liar does not establish that everything he narrated is a lie, and this is the stronger view.

4_ It can be said that “fabrication” can be inferred by studying the general tendency in the deliberate intent to oppose on the part of the authorities and their aides among the historians and compilers—what is called the (political, religious or sectarian) motive—together with studying the import of the hadith that contradicts the fundamentals.

All of these matters are absent in the narration of the supplications for the days of the month of Ramadan.

The Second Theme: On the Sources of the Supplications.

The oldest source we have found that mentions the daily supplications of the month of Ramadan is the valuable book Iqbal al-Aʿmal by Sayed ʿAli ibn Musa Ibn Tawus, who lived in the seventh century AH. He mentioned the supplications in full, divided over the days, without attributing them to anyone, and confined himself to saying “And another supplication on the first day,” then he cites the supplication, and so on.

Sayed Ibn Tawus specialized in writing on supplications and authored several valuable books which became a focus of the eminent scholars' attention. “Most of those books were, in his view, relied upon, authentic and transmitted; and for the few that he found without having a reliable route to them, he relied on the generality of the hadith concerning one who is reached by [news of] a reward for a deed, as he indicated at the beginning of the book Falah al-Saʾil.”2

So Sayed Ibn Tawus has a clear and precise methodology in accepting narrations, for what he mentions in his books does not go beyond one of two things:

1_ That what he narrates be reliable in his view on account of the narrators or of the contextual indicators, with the details he mentioned in his book Falah al-Saʾil, which he concluded with the phrase: “For I mention only that for which I have a justification.”3

2_ And everything that is not so, he narrated according to the rule of “whoever is reached by [news of] a reward for a deed,” so it is acceptable to him from this angle. This shows that everything he transmits in his books, even where he does not mention who said it, is attributed to an Infallible; otherwise it would fall outside these two categories.

Al-ʿAllama al-Majlisi mentioned these supplications in al-Bihar, citing al-Iqbal.

In the ninth century AH, Shaykh al-Kafʿami narrated the supplications for the days of the month of Ramadan in his book devoted to supplications and acts of worship, al-Balad al-Amin wa al-Dirʿ al-Hasin, and he likewise mentioned them in his other book, al-Misbah, where he said: “It is recommended that one supplicate during the days of the month of Ramadan with these supplications, a separate supplication for each day, from its beginning to its end, from the book al-Dhakhira. Ibn ʿAbbas narrated them from the Prophet (s)…”4

So he attributed them to the book al-Dhakhira, which we do not know, and attributed their narration to the Prophet (s) through Ibn ʿAbbas.

Al-ʿAllama al-Majlisi mentioned these supplications once again in his book Zad al-Maʿad, from Ibn ʿAbbas from the Prophet (s), and he mentioned that al-Kafʿami placed the supplication of the twenty-seventh day on the twenty-ninth day. This means that he took the narration from a book other than al-Iqbal, from which he had taken the narration without the attribution to the Prophet (s).

It is worth mentioning that al-ʿAllama al-Majlisi stated explicitly at the end of the supplications that he does not consider the narration of the supplications of the days reliable, even though he mentioned in the introduction to Zad al-Maʿad that he would mention what is transmitted “with authentic and reliable chains, so that the common people are not deprived of their blessings.”5 Perhaps the explanation of this is that he does not consider its narration reliable—that is, from the angle of its narrators, not from the angle of other contextual indicators or from the angle of the text—and for that reason he included it in Zad al-Maʿad, in which he did not mention many narrations that he had mentioned in al-Bihar.

As for al-Kafʿami, he explains his methodology in recording narrations in his book al-Balad al-Amin by saying: “This is a book containing protective invocations, supplications, glorifications and ziyarat transmitted from the masters of the leaders and the leaders of the masters, the radiant and blessed ones, the Family of Ta Ha and Ya Sin, whose words the ears do not reject and whose meanings time does not wear out, taken from books whose authenticity is relied upon, the holding fast to whose handhold is commanded, which neither the alternation of the two eras nor the recurrence of night and day alters; and I have titled what I composed and named what I compiled al-Balad al-Amin wa al-Dirʿ al-Hasin.”6

Among the later sources in the books of supplication: al-Muhaqqiq al-Qummi mentioned them in the book Mafatih al-Jinan, citing Zad al-Maʿad; Sayed al-Shirazi also mentioned them in the book al-Duʿaʾ wa al-Ziyara, as did some modern encyclopedias of supplications; and none of them goes beyond the sources we have mentioned.

An Objection and a Reply

Perhaps the objection may be raised that the supplications might have been taken from some books of the Sunnis, because they narrate a great deal from Ibn ʿAbbas from the Prophet (s); moreover, the supplication of the twenty-seventh day contains: “O Allah, grant me in it the merit of Laylat al-Qadr,” and it is known that most of the Shiʿa specify it as the nights of the 19th, 21st and 23rd, while the 27th night is in agreement with the Sunnis.

We say: the possibility exists, but it cannot be asserted with certainty, and the opposite will become clear in the third theme. Here are some points regarding this objection:

1_ The presence of a narration in the books of the opposing school does not necessarily mean that it is false, as is the case with the many narrations shared between our books and theirs.

2_ Indeed, some books of the Sunnis have preserved some of the Shiʿi heritage that was subjected to obliteration, burning and siege in numerous eras, such as the Maqtal of Imam al-Husayn (a) by Abu Mikhnaf, which al-Tabari narrated from him, and other narrations of creed.

3_ A narration of Ibn ʿAbbas from the Prophet (s) can be closer to the reliable narrations, because Ibn ʿAbbas mentioned many narrations on the virtues of the Ahl al-Bayt (a), and other narrations, whose agreement with the narrations we have has been established, such as the narration “I am the city of wisdom and ʿAli is its gate…”. Some Sunni books narrated it with a broken chain (from Ibn ʿAbbas from the Prophet), and some of their books narrated it with a full chain; some of their scholars rejected it because of its being mursal, yet it agrees with the narrations we have; indeed, the community narrates the text of the hadith with a connected chain to Imam al-Baqir (a).

If we were to search among the shared supplications narrated through different routes by the two parties, we would find many of them. The Center for Scholarly Research and Studies has compiled the series of shared hadiths under the supervision of Shaykh Muhammad ʿAli al-Taskhiri, among them the book al-Adʿiya al-Maʾthura al-Mushtaraka by ʿAli Rida Farahani. In it we find the same supplication narrated through the routes of the ʿAmma (Sunnis) with a chain particular to them, or narrated as mursal, and we find it in al-Kafi with a full chain from the Prophet (s) and the Ahl al-Bayt (a).

4_ The other party has no supplications prescribed as sunna for the days and nights; so the Ramadan supplications of the days that we are dealing with run contrary to their view, and this is one of the reasons some of their scholars rejected them. Indeed, we have not found any book of theirs, reliable or unreliable, that mentions the supplications of the days. Had it been found in one of their sources, we could say that the likelihood of its having passed from our old books to theirs is greater than of its having passed to our books from theirs, because of what we mentioned about assigning supplications to the days contrary to their view, and because of what you will learn later about the particular features of the supplications that accord with the way of the Ahl al-Bayt (a); and this is what some of their scholars have mentioned, as you will see.

5_ As for the fact that the subject of the supplication of the twenty-seventh day is Laylat al-Qadr, as it states: “O Allah, grant me in it the merit of Laylat al-Qadr, turn my affairs in it from hardship to ease, accept my excuses, and remove from me sin and burden, O You who are Kind to His righteous servants”—al-Majlisi said: “Al-Kafʿami mentioned the supplication of the twenty-seventh day on the twenty-ninth day, and it is not unlikely that it should be recited on the twenty-third day in accordance with the Shiʿi school, for that is more fitting; and Allah knows best.”7

“But it seems that there is no obstacle to the supplication being for the twenty-seventh day, for it does not state explicitly that the night before it was Laylat al-Qadr; rather, it is a supplication that Allah grant him the merit of Laylat al-Qadr.”8 This does not affect the acceptance of the narration, for differences between manuscripts and the possibility of alteration in the order are conceivable.

The Third Theme: On the Contextual Indicators of the Acceptability of the Supplications.

In this theme we present objective dimensions that amount to contextual indicators for accepting the supplications of the days of the month of Ramadan—not a claim of authenticity, reliability or other such descriptions pertaining to the chain of transmission, because what is clearly established is that these supplications were narrated as mursal. However, a mursal narration can be accepted if it is surrounded by contextual indicators that produce confidence and assurance. We will mention a number of objective indicators that raise the degree of reliability of the supplications of the days, making it a given that they may be adopted under the rule of “whoever is reached by something of reward”; indeed, one could claim that they rank above that. They are as follows:

1_ Ibn Tawus and al-Kafʿami mentioned them, and they are among the greatest Shiʿi scholars specializing in the field of supplications, together with their trustworthiness and their high standing in this field, such that their books have become among the books referred to in their field. There is no need to mention the statements of the scholars about them and their works, since these are well known.

2_ Sayed Ibn Tawus lived in the seventh century AH and had many books, among the usul (early source collections) and others, that have not reached us; he used to draw from them and record what he considered authentic or reliable. “It was among the favors of Allah, Majestic is His Majesty, upon him that He made available to him books and other means of authorship such as He did not make available to anyone in his age or after it, for his ownership extended to one thousand five hundred volumes of books when he composed the book al-Iqbal with them in the year 650 AH. He himself stated explicitly in the book Kashf al-Mahajja, which he wrote for his son Muhammad in the year 649, that the books of supplication alone in his possession were more than sixty volumes, and he said: ‘Allah, Majestic is His Majesty, has made available to me volumes on supplications, more than sixty volumes; so [be mindful of] Allah, [be mindful of] Allah in preserving them and in memorizing their supplications, for they are among the treasures over whose safekeeping the knowledgeable compete, and I do not know of anyone having the like of their abundance and benefit.’”9 We have already mentioned his methodology in citing narrations in his books, which inspires confidence in their standing.

3_ The multiplicity of sources for the supplications of the days of the month of Ramadan opens new dimensions before us in viewing them. There is a difference between their being narrated by a single book from which all the later authors take, and the narration's being available in a number of books. Sayed Ibn Tawus undoubtedly transmitted them from the books he owned; although he did not attribute them, his books were transmitted narrations. Then, two centuries later, al-Kafʿami comes and transmits them in his two books attributed to the Prophet (s), which means that he transmitted them from another source; moreover, there are slight differences in some of the wording, as is the case with the other supplications that have multiple sources.

4_ Al-Kafʿami's explicit statement that it is recommended to supplicate with them during the days of the month of Ramadan is an indicator that he took them from a source to which the rule of “whoever it reaches” can apply. This gives his narration of the report additional attention, since he issued a sharʿi ruling on its basis, “whether we say that the recommendedness belongs to the act itself or to the motive of compliance, according to the difference among the eminent scholars over the aspect by which recommendedness is characterized”; the result is the same, namely the sharʿi incentive towards performing that act.

5_ Among the important rules for accepting a hadith is presenting it to the Mighty Book and to what is established of the purified Sunna; indeed, the method of many eminent scholars is that the absence of anything contradicting it from these two suffices. In this brief treatment we cannot set out the agreement of the thirty supplications with the Book and the Sunna, but in our explanation of these supplications in the book “The One Coming from the Other World: Thematic Insights for Your Life from the Daily Supplications of the Month of Ramadan,” we took this dimension into account, and it was established for us that the supplications have lofty contents in complete harmony with the Book and the Family (al-ʿItra). Whoever wants the details can read the book.

6_ The contents of the supplications of the days of the month of Ramadan are in harmony with Shiʿi doctrine and in agreement with its fundamentals—indeed, with its distinguishing features vis-à-vis the other sects. Among these, we find the following contents:

a. They contain steadfastness on the foundations of acts of worship.

b. They contain the doctrine of seeking intercession (tawassul) through the Ahl al-Bayt (a).

c. They contain seeking intercession through the Best Names of Allah.

d. They contain the doctrine of allegiance to the friends of Allah and disassociation from the enemies of Allah (al-tawalli wa al-tabarri).

e. The etiquette of address in them, and their contents, resemble those of the well-known supplications reported from the Ahl al-Bayt (a).

Because of this, those who do not belong to the school of the Ahl al-Bayt (a) rejected them. Shaykh ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Suhaym said: “Perhaps these supplications are among what was taken from the books of the Rafida, because the formula of blessing mentioned here is one of their formulas!”10 And another said: “In the supplication of the last day there has come what is objectionable and contrary to the Sharia: seeking intercession in supplication by the right of the Prophet (s) and the right of his Family.”11

The Lofty Contents

In conclusion, we see that the supplications of the days of the month of Ramadan are among the hidden treasures to which not a few scholars and mujtahids have recently paid attention; they have taken to recommending their regular recitation and have set about explaining them and clarifying their contents. Allah the Exalted granted us success in the year 1433 AH to write a book containing a thematic, educational explanation of the daily supplications of the month of Ramadan, and it became clear to us that their contents need further probing and explanation. In our explanation of them we relied—in addition to harmonizing them with the verses of the Noble Qurʾan and the noble narrations—on a method based on the principle of “tawassul” (seeking intercession) contained in the closing phrases of the supplications. For we found that there is a very precise thematic link between the closing phrases of the supplications (the tawassuls), which are the goals, and the text of the supplication from its beginning until it reaches the start of the closing phrases. We worked on explaining the text on the basis that it consists of important thematic premises for reaching the goals (which are the closing phrases). So we began the process of explanation with an introduction showing the importance of the goal and a question about how to reach it, and then we return to setting out the premises as answers and as a path to arriving.

For example, in the supplication of the third day: “O Allah, grant me in it intelligence and alertness, keep me far in it from foolishness and deception, and give me a share of every good that You send down in it, by Your generosity, O Most Generous of the generous.”

The closing of the supplication is seeking intercession through the generosity of Allah, who is the Generous, the Bountiful towards His servants; yet generosity is not bounded by any limit, so how does the believer obtain generosity in greater measure? We return to answer this question by analyzing the premises of the supplication, and we see that we ask Allah to grant us two things: “intelligence and alertness”—sagacity and attentiveness, which means being awake and aware of things so that one does not miss opportunities and thereby makes good use of every good; and the second thing is avoiding what harms that attentiveness: “keep me far in it from foolishness and deception.” Once that is achieved, he asks for good: “and give me a share of every good that You send down in it,” in preparation for receiving the outpourings of divine generosity.

We ask Allah the Exalted for success and right guidance in what holds goodness and righteousness, by the right of Muhammad and his pure Family.

Sayed Mahmoud Al-Mosawi

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Footnotes

1- Al-Kafi, vol. 2, p. 87

2- Al-Iqbal bi al-Aʿmal al-Hasana, editor's introduction, vol. 1, p. 18

3- Falah al-Saʾil, Sayed Ibn Tawus, p. 11

4- Al-Balad al-Amin wa al-Dirʿ al-Hasin, text, p. 220; and al-Misbah by al-Kafʿami (Junnat al-Aman al-Waqiya), p. 613

5- Zad al-Maʿad, al-ʿAllama al-Majlisi, introduction, p. 9.

6 - Al-Balad al-Amin wa al-Dirʿ al-Hasin, p. 2.

7- Zad al-Maʿad, al-ʿAllama al-Majlisi.

8 - The One Coming from the Other World, by the author.

9- Al-Iqbal bi al-Aʿmal al-Hasana (modern edition), vol. 1, p. 17

10- Al-Fatawa al-ʿAmma, Shaykh ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Suhaym, (1/ 132)

11- Islam Question and Answer website, (5/ 3469, in al-Shamela's automatic numbering)