Answer
Wa`alaykum as-salamu wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
It is Sunnah to fast the first nine days of Dhul-Hijjah, especially the day of Arafah, for those who are not performing Hajj.
Answering your question, we would like to state the following:
It is Sunnah to fast the first nine days of Dhul-Hijjah, especially the day of Arafah, for those who are not performing Hajj. The following hadiths support this view:
1- Abu Qatadah said that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said; “Fasting on the day of Arafah is an expiation for two years; the year preceding it and the year following it. Fasting the day of Ashura is an expiation for the year preceding it.”(Reported by “the group,” except for Al-Bukhari and At-Tirmidhi)
2- One of the wives of the Prophet said: “Allah’s Messenger used to fast the [first] nine days of Dhul-Hijjah, the day of Ashura, and three days of each month.” (Abu Dawud)
3- Uqbah ibn Amir (may Allah be pleased with him) is reported to have said that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: “The day of Arafah [for those performing Hajj], the day of sacrifice, and the days of Tashreeq are Eids (feasts) for us – the people of Islam – and they are days of eating and drinking.” (Ahmad, Abu Dawud, and An-Nasa’i)
4- Abu Hurairah narrates that the Prophet forbade fasting on the day of Arafah for one who is actually at Arafah. (Ahmad, Abu Dawud, An-Nasa’i, and Ibn Majah)
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.