Culture Development Attempts Made by the Prophet (p.b.u.h) and the Imams (a.s.) Relying on the Capacity of the Number Forty / Arba een

Numbers have a special place in different cultures. In each culture, a number or certain numbers symbolize good things or bad ones. The number forty / arba’een is one of the numbers that has a special place in Arabic culture. The issue addressed in this paper is how the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) and the Imams (a.s.) used the capacity of this number to promote the goals of Islam. Using the descriptive-analytic research method, this issue is dealt with in this paper. The obtained results revealed that the number forty / arba’een was more often known as the age of growth and perfection in Arabic culture before Islam. The Prophet (p.b.u.h.), however, made every attempt to eliminate such a belief. By counseling with the youth and giving responsibility to them, on the one hand, and mentioning such numerous examples as saving forty hadiths, forty rewards for one act, eating a food for forty days, etc., on the other, the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) caused this conventional belief to be diminished. The Imams (a.s.) utilized the capacity of the number forty / arba’een in another way. They used this number to give direction to the mourning of Imam Hussein (a.s.) and framed the pilgrimage of arba’een as a symbol of Shia over a span of 200 years.