XXXIV.—A′KHIRI CHAHA′R SHAMBA.[1]
A′khiri Chaha′r Shamba is the "last Wednesday" of the month of Safar, and is a feast held in commemoration of Muhammad's having experienced some mitigation of his last illness and having bathed. It was the last time he performed the legal bathing, for he died on the twelfth day of the next month. In some parts of Islám it is customary, in the early morning of this day, to write seven verses of the Qurán, known as the Seven Saláms, and then wash off the ink and drink it as a charm against evil.
The A′khiri Chahár Shamba is not observed by the Wahhábís, not being enjoined in the Qurán and Hadís.
- ↑ The Persian name for the day; the Arabic being Arbʾáa-ul-Akhír, i. e. "the last Wednesday."