Muharram · a Light

The best fast after Ramadan is in the month of Allah

The Prophet ﷺ was asked which fast is best after Ramadan and said: the month of Allah which you call Muharram. In the same report he said the best prayer after the obligatory ones is the prayer at night. Muharram is one of the four months the Qur'an calls sacred, in which fighting was forbidden long before Islam and remained forbidden after it. The recommendation is voluntary and the month is not a second Ramadan. What it does is place a marked stretch of fasting at the start of the year rather than the middle, an arrangement recognisable to anyone who has watched resolutions collapse in January.

Abu Hurayra · the month of Muharram

Source · Muslim 1163