Explanation of Hadeeth
27-12-2004 | IslamWeb
Question:
Is it true that the following Hadeeth is weak?
Hafsah, (may Allaah be pleased with her) relates that: "There are four things that the Prophet, sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam, never abandoned: fasting the day of Ashurah, fasting the first ten days of Zul-Hijjah, fasting three days of every month and praying the two Raka'h before the dawn prayer." [Ahmed and al-Nasaa'ee]
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.
Hafsah 
relates: "There are four things that the Prophet 
never abandoned: Fasting the day of 'Aashooraa', fasting the first ten days of Thul-Hijjah, fasting three days of every month and praying the two Raka's before the dawn prayer." [Ahmad and An-Nasaa'ee] Note that "the first ten" means the first nine days since the tenth will be the 'Eed (i.e. the day of sacrifice). This narration is classified by Ibn Hibbaan 
as authentic but some other scholars 
classified it as a weak narration. However, there are other narrations by Al-Bukhari and Muslim which prove the legality of every section of the above narration, like the fasting of the 13th, 14th, and 15th of every month, and the two Raka's before the dawn prayer. There are also authentic narrations about urging people to perform good deeds on the ten days of Thul-Hijjah and there is no doubt that fasting is the best act of worship, so how could a person refrain from getting this great benefit and reward?
For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 85045.
Allaah knows best.