Can We Make Halwa on the 15th of Sha’ban?

Answered by Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat

Question

Where I live, there’s a tradition that on the 15th of Shaban, they must make a dish called halwa and special bread. Some local scholars say it must be done, while others say it is bidah. I am confused. Should I make such a dish or not?

Answer

Making such a dish on the 15th of Sha’ban has no religious basis. It is most likely a local custom people have practiced for a while.

They have told you that making it is a bidah because some think there is religious significance to making halwa on that day. This isn’t the case. Deeming something other than the way the Shari’a classifies it is problematic. [Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar]

It is permissible to make the dish with the understanding that it is not a religious act. It is like making any other dish on any day of the year. Making it with this understanding will be permissible.

May Allah grant you the best of both worlds.

[Shaykh] Abdul-Rahim Reasat
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat began studying Arabic Grammar and Morphology whilst studying for a degree in English and History. After graduating, He traveled to Damascus and studied Arabic, Hanafi Fiqh, Usul al-Fiqh, Theology, and Logic with Shaykh Adnan Darwish, Shaykh ‘Abd al-Rahman Arjan al-Binsawi, Shaykh Husayn Darwish, Shaykh Muhammad Darwish, the late Shaykh Rashad Shams, and others. He then moved to Amman to continue his studies in those fields, as well as in Tafsir, Quranic Sciences, Hadith Methodology and Commentary, Prophetic Biography, Prophetic Perfections and Traits, Rhetoric, Arabic Literature, and Tajwid. His teachers include Shaykh Ali Hani, Dr. Hamza al-Bakri, Dr Salah Abu al-Hajj, Dr Mansur Abu Zina, Shaykh Ahmad Hasanat, Shaykh Ahmad Jammal, and others.