ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to suggest a further possible reflection in Islam of the Jewish Day of Atonement. Here it will be the specifically Shiᒼite conception of ᒼĀshቫrāᐣ which concerns us — ᒼĀshቫrāᐣ as the commemoration of the Martyrdom of Ḥusayn at Karbalāᐣ — and the link with the Day of Atonement seems to be provided by the movement of the Tawwābūn. God appears to grant His forgiveness freely to those who repent, without any action of atonement on their part. In Jewish accounts of the story of Moses and of the golden calf the idea of atonement is an important ingredient, but it is not a question of the community as a whole performing atonement for the sin of the calf, but rather of Moses performing the act on behalf of his people.
