Every year around Dhul Hijjah, the same questions come up. Can I fast all ten days? Is the Day of Arafah compulsory? And Eid day itself — is fasting just frowned upon, or actually forbidden? If you’ve Googled this and still walked away unsure, that’s not on you. The rulings around fasting before Eid Al Adha and in Dhul Hijjah are actually straightforward — the problem is that most people encounter them in pieces, from different sources, and the pieces don’t always connect.
A lot of the confusion starts with one phrase. The hadith literature talks about “the ten days of Dhul Hijjah” when describing the best days for good deeds and worship.
That phrase makes some people think fasting runs through all ten, including Eid. It doesn’t. Imam Ibn Sirin, the early scholar, actually disliked that phrasing for exactly this reason. He worried it would mislead people into thinking the tenth day was part of it. (It isn’t — and on Eid day, fasting flips from recommended to forbidden.)
This article covers the fasting rulings for the first nine days of Dhul Hijjah, what makes the Day of Arafah different from the rest, the clear prohibition on fasting in Eid al Adha, and what all four Sunni schools of law actually say. If you’re learning Arabic for Qur’an or Islamic studies, there’s also something useful here about the legal terminology — the Arabic terms that carry these rulings appear constantly in classical texts, and knowing them changes how you read.
Days One to Nine: Fasting before Eid Al Adha Is Recommended, Not Required
Start with the basics: fasting the first nine days of Dhul Hijjah is mustahabb. Recommended. You earn a reward for doing it, and there’s no sin for leaving it. It’s not an obligation the way Ramadan is.
The Prophet ﷺ said, in Sahih al-Bukhari (no. 969):
“There are no days on which righteous deeds are more beloved to Allah than these ten days.”
Fasting is one of those deeds. In a hadith Qudsi in the same collection, Allah says:
“All the deeds of the son of Adam are for him, except fasting, which is for Me, and I shall reward him for it.”
Fasting is already elevated in the Islamic tradition. Fasting in the days Allah Himself described as the most beloved takes that further.
Every major Sunni school agrees. The Hanafi position, recorded in Al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya (1/201), is that fasting during these days is recommended, especially the Day of Arafah. The Maliki, Shafi’i, and Hanbali schools say the same. Four schools, one answer. The classical scholars landed here together, and they stayed.
You don’t have to fast all nine days to make this meaningful. Even fasting some of them — a few days here, the ninth day especially — counts. If your schedule makes nine continuous days difficult, that’s a real constraint, not a moral failure.
If you want to be able to read rulings like these in their original Arabic — not just in English summaries — Alif Arabic’s Quranic Arabic course builds the foundation for exactly that. Explore it here.
The Day of Arafah: Why the 9th Is Genuinely Different
The 9th day carries something the other eight don’t. Yawm Arafah — the Day of Arafah — is when the Hajj pilgrims gather at the plain of Arafah. If you’ve ever watched the footage of millions of people standing there together, you already have some sense of what that day holds. For everyone else — those not at Hajj — the recommended act is to fast.
The Prophet ﷺ said, as recorded in Sahih Muslim (no. 1162):
“Fasting the Day of Arafah expiates the sins of the previous year and the coming year.”
That’s two years of expiation for a single day’s fast. It’s one of the most specific rewards tied to a voluntary fast anywhere in the prophetic tradition, and it explains why scholars from every school single out this day even when discussing the nine collectively.
There is one nuance worth knowing — the ruling shifts slightly for the pilgrim. The Maliki school considers fasting on Arafah disliked for someone actually performing Hajj, not because fasting is wrong in principle, but because the physical demands of the wuquf (the standing at Arafah) might be compromised by hunger and fatigue. The Hanafi position is that it’s permitted if it won’t weaken the pilgrim. For those of us watching from home, there’s no such concern. Fasting in Arafah is clear and strongly encouraged.
One more practical point: Some scholars recommend making the Arafah fast with its own specific intention, separate from making up missed Ramadan days. You can use days one through eight to make up Ramadan fasts if needed. But for the 9th, fast it as Arafah, so the reward attaches to what the day actually is.
Is it Haram to Fast on Eid al Adha?
This one isn’t a grey area. Fasting on Eid al Adha is haram — and haram doesn’t mean “probably best to avoid it.” It means forbidden. The Prophet ﷺ prohibited fasting on both Eid days, and that’s recorded in both Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. Every single Sunni school of law lands in the same place on this. There’s no debate to have.
Fast on Eid al Adha is not a grey area, the way many fiqh questions are. It belongs to the category of clear prohibitions — the kind that don’t require scholarly weighing up of evidence on both sides. Imam al-Nawawi, in his commentary Al-Minhaj Sharh Sahih Muslim, addresses the “ten days” language directly, explaining that fasting applies only to the nine permitted days. The tenth was never part of it.
Eid has its own character in the tradition, and food is part of it intentionally. The Prophet ﷺ wouldn’t leave for Eid al-Fitr prayer without eating dates first. For Eid al Adha, the meal follows the sacrifice. That’s not incidental. The days leading up to Eid are for restraint and heightened worship. Eid itself is for gratitude, celebration, and food shared with others. Fasting on that day doesn’t show extra devotion — it contradicts the spirit of what the day is.
Arabic learners who are working through Islamic texts and want to build the vocabulary for classical fiqh discussions will find the Quran course at Alif Arabic gives them the tools to actually read these rulings in the original.
What the Arabic Terms Are Actually Saying
If you’re learning Arabic for Islamic studies, the legal vocabulary attached to these rulings shows up everywhere in classical scholarship. Mustahabb (مستحب) — recommended. When you see the word haram (حرام), it’s not saying “this is a bad idea.” It’s not a raised eyebrow or a gentle discouragement. It’s a legal category — forbidden —, and it carries a completely different weight from the categories sitting next to it on the scale.
That scale goes:
- Wajib (obligatory)
- Mustahabb (recommended)
- Mubah (permitted)
- Makruh (disliked)
- Haram (forbidden).
Five categories. Each one is distinct. And if you’re reading Islamic scholarship — in Arabic or in translation — knowing which category a ruling belongs to is the difference between actually understanding it and just reading the words.
The one that trips people up most is the gap between makruh and haram.
Something makruh is disliked — there’s discouragement attached to it, but no sin. Something haram carries a sin if done. Fasting on Eid isn’t makruh. It’s haram. And that gap matters more than it might seem. In English, “you shouldn’t fast on Eid” sounds the same whether the scholar meant disliked or forbidden. The translation flattens it. In Arabic, the term used tells you exactly where the ruling sits — no guessing, no ambiguity.
This is something Arabic learners run into constantly once they start reading fiqh texts. Even shorter classical works like Mukhtasar al-Quduri or Matn al-Akhdar are built around this scale. The terms are everywhere. And there’s a real difference between recognising a word on the page and understanding the weight it’s carrying.
A Final Thought on the Shape of These Days
Step back and look at how these days are arranged. Nine days of fasting are among the most rewarded acts you can do. Then Eid arrives — and the ruling flips completely. The same act that was earning you a reward the day before is now forbidden. The shift isn’t incidental. It’s the same pattern as Ramadan: an intensified period of worship followed immediately by a day where abstaining from food is not just permitted but actually prohibited.
The Islamic tradition doesn’t treat celebration as a compromise on worship. Eid al Adha is itself an act of devotion — the Qurbani, the prayer, the gathering. What the prohibition on fasting does is protect the character of the day. It keeps Eid from being absorbed into a continuous regime of self-denial and insists that it stay what it’s meant to be.
For those of us learning Arabic to understand the Quran and the tradition it carries, the fact that fasting rulings sit inside a calendar structured this carefully is itself worth understanding. The precision scholars bring to this — the way they distinguish between days, the care they take with a phrase like “the ten days” — isn’t an academic habit. It’s how a tradition keeps its meaning intact across centuries. And that precision is genuinely easier to see when you’re inside the language. Translations do their best, but something always gets flattened.
If you want to read Islamic scholarship in Arabic — not just follow along in translation — Alif Arabic’s Arabic course is where that work begins.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is fasting on Eid al Adha actually forbidden, or just not recommended?
It’s actually forbidden — haram. The Prophet ﷺ prohibited fasting on both Eid days, and this is recorded in both Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. All four Sunni schools of law are in agreement on this. It’s not a matter of scholarly debate or a ruling that varies by madhab.
Do I have to fast all nine days, or is just the Day of Arafah enough?
Fasting during the nine days is recommended, not obligatory. If you can only manage one day, make it the 9th — the Day of Arafah. The Prophet ﷺ specifically described fasting that day as expiating the sins of the previous year and the coming year (Sahih Muslim, no. 1162). That’s a reward tied to a specific day, not just to Dhul Hijjah generally.
I’m performing Hajj this year. Should I still fast on Arafah?
The schools differ here. The Maliki school considers it disliked for the pilgrim because of the physical strain of standing at Arafah — a fast that leaves you weak might affect your worship more than help it. The Hanafi school says it’s permitted, as long as the fast doesn’t leave you too weak to perform the rites properly. If you’re making Hajj this year, this is one of those questions where a general answer isn’t really enough. Ask a scholar who knows your madhab and your situation.
Can I use these days to make up for Ramadan fasts I missed?
Yes, for days one through eight. For the 9th specifically, most scholars advise fasting it with its own intention — as Arafah — rather than folding it into Ramadan makeup. The reward tied to that day is tied to that intention. If you fast it as a qada fast, you get the makeup. You may miss what the day itself was offering.
What does the word mustahabb mean, and why does it matter?
Mustahabb (مستحب) is one of those words that’s worth knowing properly. It means recommended — there’s a reward in doing it, and no sin in leaving it. It’s not wajib, where you’re obligated, and it’s not just mubah, where something is merely allowed. It’s the category that says this act has real value, and you’d be doing yourself a favour by doing it. That’s exactly where fasting the first nine days of Dhul Hijjah sits. Fasting on Eid is haram — at the other end entirely.
