Salafi Research Institute SRI
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
al-‘Uqaylī said (D. 322):
“All narrations regarding descending of Allah on 15th Sha’bān are weak” [al-Ḍu’afā 3/29]
Ibn al-‘Arabi said (D. 543):
“And there’s no Ḥadīth regarding the night of 15th Sha’bān that can be depended on; Neither its virtue nor judgement of people’s prescribed time (death) therefore do not turn towards them.” [Aḥkām al-Qurān 4/1690]
Abu al-Khaṭṭāb ibn Diḥyah said (D.665):
“The people of Jarḥ and Ta’dīl said: there is no Ḥadīth authentic regarding the night of 15th Sha’bān.” [al-Bā’ith ‘alā inkār al-Bida’ p. 127]
Ibn al-Qayyim said (D. 751):
“Nothing from it is authentic” [al-Manār al-Munīf p. 98-99]
Ibn Rajab said (D.795):
“And it is not known from imam Aḥmad any saying regarding the night of 15th
Sha’bān…Likewise standing the night of the 15th, nothing is proven from it from the Prophet ﷺ nor his companions” [Laṭāif al-Ma’ārif p. 169]
He further said in the next page:
“And in the virtue of the night of 15th Sha’bān are many other aḥādīth and it has been
differed over but most weaken it” [Laṭāif al-Ma’ārif p. 170]
Therefore, there’s no authentic Ḥadīth regarding 15 Sha’bān including the Ḥadīth that Allah looks at the
earth in this night and forgives everyone except a mushrik or mushāḥin. See below imams who weakened such narrations:
al-Dāraquṭnī [al-‘ilal 6/51]
Ibn Baz [Majmū’ al-Fatāwā 1/186]
Ibn ‘uthaymeen [Liqā al-Bāb al-Maftūḥ 115]
Zubayr ‘Ali Zaī [Maqālāt 1/299, click for translation]
Ghulam Mustafa Zaheer Amanpuri [Shab e barat article & youtu.be/kZ9-hWOQV5s]
Benefit: see other articles of his on: t.me/amanpuripdf & t.me/amanpuripak
‘Aziz Farhan [youtu.be/dvPnMnBPgVM]
Is anything proven from the prophet or his companions regarding 15 sha’baan?
Habib al-Rahman Hazarvi: Nothing is proven with an authentic isnad
As for combining weak narrations and considering them as Hasan lighayrihi, this is incorrect. We say as Ibn Ma’in said: “I wish he authenticated himself, how can he authenticate others?” [Min Kalam Abi Zakariyya p. 45]
(Click) See our takhrij in Arabic regarding the weakness of the hadith of not fasting after 15 sha’baan
How did it start?
Ibn Rajab said (D.795):
The 15th night of Sha’bān, the Tābi’ūn from the people of Shām like Khālid bin Ma’dān,
Makḥūl(1), Luqmān bin ‘Āmir and other than them would glorify it and strive in worship in it and people took from them its virtue and glorification and it was said: it reached to them isrāīlī narrations (from Jews/Christians) so when it became popular in the lands, people differed regarding it. From them are those who accepted it and confided with them on its glorification, from them are the worshipers of the people of Baṣrah and others while most of the scholars of Ḥijāz rebuked them including ‘Aṭā, Ibn Abī Mulaykah, ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Zayd bin Aslam narrated from the Fuqahā of Madīnah and it is the saying of the companions of Mālik and other than them and they said ‘All of it is Bid’ah'” [Laṭāif al-Ma’ārif p.171]
(1) Thiqah; He is the one who said that said Allah looks at the people of earth on this day and
forgives everyone except mushrik or mushāḥin [cf. Shu’ab al-Īmān 3/381 with Ḥasan Isnād] and then narrators after him mistakenly attributed it to the prophet ﷺ and his companions. Do remember that we do not accept reports of the unseen from the Tābi’ūn as there is a possibility they heard it from another weak Tābi’i or the people of the Book. Imam Aḥmad bin Hanbal said: “Whatever has come from the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions, take it; Then the Tābiʿīn afterwards, a man may choose (what is correct).” [Masāʾil Aḥmad bi-riwāyat Abī Dāwūd (1793)] and Abū Ḥanīfah said: “If it comes from the Tābiʿīn, we compete with them (in Ijtihād).” [al-Madkhal by al-Bayhaqī (40); Isnād Ḥasan]
‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Zayd bin Aslam (D. 182) said:
“I did not find any of our sheikhs or Fuqahā paying attention to the night of 15th Sha’bān, and we did not find any of them mentioning the hadith of Makḥūl, nor seeing any superiority for it over other nights.” [al-Bida’ wa al-Nahi ‘anhā 108; Ṣaḥīḥ Isnād]
It was said to Ibn Abī Mulaykah (D. 118) ‘Ziyād An-Numayrī says: The reward of the night of 15th Sha’ban is like the reward of Laylat al-Qadr.’ Ibn Abi Mulaykah said: “If I had heard it from him while I had a stick in my hand, I would have hit him with it.” [al-Bida’ wa al-Nahi ‘anhā 109; Ḥasan Isnād]
An advice
So my dear brother/sister, do not worship Allah except with evidence and remember that virtue of
something does not necessitate anything special to be done except with proof. For example, the Prophet ﷺ said: “Do not single out the night Friday among the nights for prayer and do not single out Friday among days for fasting except if one of you is accustomed to fast (and it coincides this day).” [Muslim 1144] How many virtues have been reported for Friday? Yet the prophet ﷺ commanded us not to do any special act of worship, this shows that the religion is based on revelation and evidences not desires.
