Fasting on ʿĀshūrāʾ as a Renewed Declaration of Freedom

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on June 25, 2026 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

O Allah, we ask You for the good of this day, the good of what is in it and the good of what comes after it, and we seek refuge in You, our Lord, from the evil of this day, the evil of what is in it and the evil of what comes after it. Our Lord, set right for us our religion, our worldly life and our Hereafter, grant us right guidance in our affairs, bless for us what You have provided us, and protect us, O Allah, from the punishment of the Fire, and turn away from us the causes of punishment in this world and the Hereafter, by Your mercy and good pleasure, O Lord of the worlds.

Now then, welcome to you all. There is no one today who is not talking about ʿĀshūrāʾ, and the Prophet ﷺ promised that fasting it expiates the past year, and this is what circulates among people. And this is true, as the Prophet ﷺ told us. But what is the philosophy of the occasion? A person should not be unconvinced of what he does, even if in the act there is following of the Prophet ﷺ, and following is guidance, and we ask Allah that we attain this honor. But why is this so? And why did the Prophet ﷺ take care over these words when he said, in meaning: We have a better claim to Moses than they do^[1]?

In What Do We Have a Better Claim to Moses?

In the fasting itself? We have very many alternatives for that, and the matter does not stop at this day. We have a better claim to Moses than they do, so what did Moses do? Did Moses fast? Or did his people fast? Or did he do something else that deserves more focus? And the fasting is the emblem that renews what Moses did. They said: this is a day on which Allah saved Moses and his people. If we take the deliverance to have been from the sea, then why was the march made to the sea? And if we take the deliverance to have been from Pharaoh, as has been said, then what is the concept here? What was Moses, upon our Prophet and upon him be prayers and peace, striving for? He was striving for the concept of liberation from the influence of that which dominated people's souls, hearts, minds and spirits.

Liberation in the Qur'an

And the concept of liberation is widespread in the Noble Qur'an from beginning to end. From the moment you say “Praise be to Allah,” you are freed from the captivity of the self that is always complaining about everything that happens to it. And this is the nature of the children of Adam; in Egypt we say: “biyitwaggaʿ” (“he is aching”), so what does it mean that he is aching? He complains of anything: too much heat, he aches; too little heat, he aches; glory be to Allah, much money, he aches; little money, he aches. So what does this signify? That the self longs, and when it longs it achieves, and when it achieves it accumulates, and when it accumulates it tires, and when it tires it complains. And the Muslim, in himself, is the only being who praises Allah, Blessed and Exalted, seventeen times a day, so he is declaring to Allah that he is free from the shackle of the self that complains.

We move on to another level of liberation, which fasting encompasses. What does fasting signify? That you choose willingly to abstain from what Allah has made lawful for you, so as to free yourself from the shackle of need, and there is another, harsher shackle, which is the shackle of desire. You know the people who eat without being hungry? He eats because food “came to his mind.” And this very expression, “it came to my mind” and “it did not come to my mind,” expresses a desire of the self, and the Muslim is able to control it, to open the door to it or close it. This is why you see that Allah, Blessed and Exalted, made taqwā the result of fasting in itself, and taqwā is the most complete goal of all acts of worship. So the fasting of this day is a renewed declaration from the Muslim community, in every time and place, that it wants to be free.

Which Prison?

The problem that arises is that many people look at liberation as liberation from prisons, or from the prison in which Pharaoh confined those people. What kind of prison was that? They were in the street, they were in life, in the alleys and the squares. But he subjugated them; he subjugated them through the morsel of bread, through fixed salaries, and through setting the patterns of life that they live and do not rise above. He subjugated their will, their minds and their desires, by laying down laws from his own head and to his own whim, and by seeing them in the places where he wanted to see them and keeping them away from the places where he did not want to see them. It was from this subjugation that Moses, peace be upon him, and his brother Aaron came to liberate their people, by asking that the Children of Israel be sent with them^[2]. “Sending” is the word the Noble Qur'an used, and sending is releasing a thing from its shackle without mentioning reasons. And what is wanted for every human being is to be free from the shackle of life.

We Subjugated Ourselves

And, sadly, we subjugated ourselves to those people ourselves, when we gave them ownership over our desires. Imagine, in utter simplicity, and forgive me for the example: the credit card in your pocket is one of the greatest forms of captivity; you desire, so you swipe the card and walk off, and then you find yourself shackled because you bought what you did not need. And whoever falls under the sway of what he does not need has fallen into captivity, the captivity of the one who pursues your credit history, and pursues you with the companies that collect debts from people. And this is just an example.

And likewise that you enter any grocery store or a big place, and you see the techniques of displaying goods, so you take this and put down that; and you fall into the captivity of whatever your eye lands on.

The Practical Conclusion

We conclude by saying: fasting on this blessed day is worship of Allah at its beginning and at its end, and it is a declaration of disavowal of servitude in any form or of any kind. So there is no servitude of a woman to a man, nor of a man to his wife, nor servitude to the children under your care, nor servitude to those for whom you work; rather you are free, so live the freedom that the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted, wanted for you. If there is kindness from a man toward his household, it is the kindness of a human being, it is only grace and generosity. And if there is service from a woman to her family, it is only motherhood, nobility, kindness and grace. And if there is service from an employee in his work, it is only bearing the work and sensing responsibility. The transformation of concepts in our minds is what makes us live as free people or as slaves, live up to responsibility or live beneath it.

I ask Allah, Blessed and Exalted, to make the fasting of this day a blessing for us and not against us, to place it in the scales of our good deeds, and to grant us through it the goal that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sought for us. May Allah keep your day sound.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: The origin of the ḥadīth is in the two Ṣaḥīḥs, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with them both), concerning fasting on ʿĀshūrāʾ, in closely similar wordings (among them “So I have a better claim to Moses than you” and “We have a better and closer claim to Moses than they”), and the speaker's wording is reported by meaning. The merit of fasting it is in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, on the authority of Abū Qatādah (may Allah be pleased with him): “I hope from Allah that it expiates the year before it.” ^[2]: Editor's documentation: The speaker said “that you send the Children of Israel with me” without specifying the sūrah; its parallel in the Qur'an is ﴿أَنْ أَرْسِلْ مَعَنَا بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ﴾ (“Send the Children of Israel with us”; al-Shuʿarāʾ, verse 17), and likewise in al-Aʿrāf (verse 105) and Ṭā Hā (verse 47) in slightly differing forms; so the meaning is conveyed here and the verse is not given in wording that was not uttered.