Fasting on the day of the Mi’raaj and the day of Shab-e-baraath

1 – Praying more than 8 rak’ahs in Taraaweeh is not
considered to be bid’ah, on the condition that one does not single out
certain nights for increasing the number, such as the last ten nights. The
number of raka’hs during the last ten nights should be the same as the
number during the other nights. The last ten nights should be characterized
by making the rak’ahs longer. 

2 – Fasting on the day which one believes to be the day of
the Mi’raaj is not permissible, and comes under the heading of bid’ah. Even
if a person is not sure, but he fasts this day for the sake of being on the
safe side, it is as if he is saying, ‘If it is really the day of the
Mi’raaj, then I will have fasted it, and if it is not, it will still be a
good action that I have done, and if I will not be rewarded for it then I
will not be punished.’ This attitude means that a person is committing
bid’ah, and he is a sinner who deserves to be punished. But if his fast is
not because it is the day of the Mi’raaj, but is rather because it is his
habit to fast alternate days, or to fast Mondays and Thursdays, and that
happens to coincide with the day known as the day of the Mi’raaj, there is
nothing wrong with him fasting it with that intention, i.e., the intention
of fasting on Monday or Thursday, or a day on which he usually fasts. 

3 – What we have said about fasting on the day of the Mi’raaj
also applies to fasting on the day of Shab-e-baraath. If any Muslim says
that fasting on the day of the Mi’raaj or on the day of Shab-e-baraath is
not bid’ah because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)
taught us these acts of worship, so what is wrong with fasting any day apart
from the days on which it is haraam to fast? Our response to that is:

If the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)
taught us these acts of worship, then where is the evidence (daleel) for
singling out the day of the Mi’raaj or any other day for fasting? If there
were any evidence that it is prescribed to fast on these two days, no one
would be able to say that fasting on these days is bid’ah. But what is
apparent is that those who say this mean that fasting is an act of worship
in general terms, so that if he fasts he has done an act of worship for
which he will be rewarded, so long as it is not on one of the days when
fasting is not allowed, such as on Eid. This would be correct if the person
who is fasting did not single out a day which he believes is a day of
virtue, such as the day of the Mi’raaj or the day of Shab-e-baraath. What
makes this the matter of bid’ah is the fact that one is singling out these
days. If there was any virtue in fasting these two days, the Prophet (peace
and blessings of Allaah be upon him) would have fasted them, and he would
have urged us to fast them. It is known that the Companions of the Messenger
of Allaah were more keen to do good than we are; if they had known that
there was any virtue in fasting these two days, they would have fasted them.
Since we find no reports to that effect from them, we know that this is an
innovated bid’ah, and the Prophet  (peace and blessings of Allaah be
upon him) said: “Whoever does an action that is not a part of this matter of
ours (Islam) will have it rejected,” i.e., it will be thrown back on the one
who does it. Fasting these two days is an action which we find no report of
the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) enjoining, so it is
to be rejected. 

4 – The “salat tasbeeh nafil” is to be regarded in the same
way as the matter discussed above, in the fullest sense. Acts of worship
that have no evidence (daleel) to support them are to be rejected. It has
not been proven in the Book of Allaah or in the Sunnah of His Chosen Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) that there is any prayer in
which “Qul Huwa Allaahu Ahad” is to be recited 100 times, so doing that is
an innovated bid’ah for which the one who does it will be punished.

Allaah knows best.