ABSTRACT
The idea that time is inherently patterned, with some days or months intrinsically privileged over others, is deeply rooted in the Islamic tradition and is addressed by the earliest mawlid authors. The author of one of the earliest mawlid texts, Ibn Dihya al-Kalbi (d. 633 AH/1235 CE), is also known to have been the author of a work entitled al-‘Alam al-manshur fi fadl al-ayyam wa’l-shuhur, “The unfurled banner on the virtues of [special] days and months.”1 The assumption that time is non-homogeneous, and that some times in the Islamic calendar are particularly spiritually advantageous, would have been natural to a hadith scholar such as Ibn Dihya because of the large number of hadith texts extolling the special virtues of specific months, dates, days of the week, and times of the day. Such reports were sufficiently numerous to inspire a minor genre; in addition to Ibn Dihya’s work, the traditionist al-Bayhaqi (d. 458 AH/1066 CE) authored a Kitab fada’il al-awqat (“Book on the virtues of [special] times”).2 The Shafi‘i scholar Ibn ‘Abd al-Salam al-Sulami (d. 660 AH/1262 CE) was merely affirming a widely acknowledged truth when he stated that some times and places were distinguished by this-worldly advantages (such as salubrious weather or a profusion of fruits), while others enjoyed a religious pre-eminence “that derives from the fact that in them God generously bestows upon His worshipers a preferential reward for those who perform [pious] acts in them.” As examples of the disproportionate divine rewards accruing to acts of worship performed at specific special times, Ibn ‘Abd al-Salam cites (among others) the examples of fasting in the month of Ramadan or on the days of ‘Ashura’ and the tenth of Dhu’l-Hijja.3
