2015 07 10 Friday Prayer Sheikh Khalil Abdul Rashid

The True Purpose and Practice of I'tikaf in the Last Ten Days of Ramadan

The time has come for us to begin our journey to the exit, to the end of Ramadan. We ask Allah to accept our a'mal. We ask Allah to purify our quloob. We ask Allah to allow us to exit in a better state than we were in when we entered Ramadan.

This time of the last ten days that we are in now — and it appears that based upon the scientific data, the moon will be sightable on Friday night. It appears from all the scientific data that the moon will be able to be sighted on Friday night as opposed to Thursday night. Thursday night is an almost 99% possibility that it cannot be sighted according to the calculations, according to astronomical data. So it appears that insha'Allah ta'ala we will be able to sight the moon on Friday night, and it appears that insha'Allah ta'ala that next Saturday will be our Eid. But as is the tradition, we will still sight the moon insha'Allah ta'ala.

What the Prophet Did in the Last Ten Days

As we prepare to say goodbye, to bid farewell to this blessed time, we refer to the greatest reference that we have — Rasulullah, peace be upon him — and what he did and what he used to do during this time.

All of the textual evidence, all of the historical Islamic data, points to one thing and one thing only: i'tikaf. I'tikaf in the masjid. That's what he did, Rasulullah, peace be upon him. He missed it one year and he made it up. Look at that. He missed it one time and he made it up.

The consensus of the scholars is that i'tikaf is a magnificent sunnah — it is not fard. None of the ulama say it is obligatory. Even though Rasulullah, peace be upon him, did it constantly, and even though when he missed it he made it up. And even when he performed it — and we know that he performed i'tikaf in the last ten days — his wives, specifically Hafsah, Aisha, and early on Zaynab before her death, used to perform i'tikaf as well in the masjid. Every year, his wives — specifically those three — performed it with him. And after his death, peace be upon him, they continued to perform i'tikaf in the masjid as well.

They would take their tents. The Prophet, peace be upon him, used to enter the masjid with a khaymah, or a tent. And he would erect it in a place, in a corner of the masjid. He would enter the tent and close it, and that would be the last you would hear of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, except that he would exit for the obligatory prayers.

This is a magnanimous activity. And in my observation of our own practice of i'tikaf, I thought it necessary and important to explain what it is that we are supposed to be doing, in hopes that all of us will strive as hard as we can to be better than we have been. And the only way to do that is to really understand what he, peace be upon him, did and how he did it, and what the ulema have said about that, and we take that information and we try to practice it. First year we did a little less. Second year perhaps a little better. Third year we improved, etc. And we meet Allah. When we meet Allah, at least we can say, Ya Rabb, I tried. Ya Rabb, I tried.

The Meaning of I'tikaf

I'tikaf literally means to be in prison. Think about that for a second. It means in the Arabic language habis. In the Turkish language they call the prison, the incarceration area, Habis Haneh. It means to be in prison. You can stop and reflect on that, and that should be enough to tell us the way that we should be when we enter this masjid with the niyyah of i'tikaf.

Video games are not allowed in prison. Foolish talk, eat when you want, go out and play basketball — these things are not allowed. That's the linguistic meaning of i'tikaf. It also has a second meaning, which is to hide. To hide. To conceal. The way that the spider conceals itself in a hole. It's not about being in public. It's not about being seen. It's concealment.

But the Shari'ah meaning of i'tikaf is to imprison the nafs. To restrain and imprison the nafs. To imprison it how? To imprison it in a certain place, in a certain time, and to withhold it and imprison it by restricting it to certain actions in a certain way.

Think about that. Certain place. Certain time. Certain actions. But in a certain way. There is a system. There is a point. Why? Why all these restrictions — place, time, actions, manners? It is because the sole purpose of i'tikaf is not camping in the masjid. It is not a sleepover. It is not a party. It is ibadah. And not only ibadah — it is ibadah that is not targeting the body.

I'tikaf: A Spiritual, Not Bodily, Act of Worship

Some of the ibadat are bodily oriented. Salah — you cannot have a valid salah without the body moving. Hajj — you cannot have a valid hajj without the body moving. So some of the ibadat are bodily oriented. I'tikaf is not like that. I'tikaf is an act of ibadah that is a direct injection into the qalb. It is directed to the ruh and the qalb. It is 100% a spiritual activity. It is not camping. It is not a sleepover.

The first thing is that all of them agree that i'tikaf is about cleansing the heart and polishing the ruh from all of the accumulated sins and dust that we have built up over the years. Ramadan prepares us for this. It makes the ruh and the soul exposed to cleansing by fasting. It calms the breaths. Shaytan is locked up. The ruh is prepared for its cleansing. The human being has been subduing the desires for so many days. It prepares the ruh for cleansing.

And now, at the end of Ramadan's last ten days — that's the time for the scrubbing. That's the time for the actual scrubbing. And so the body is hidden. The body is restricted and hidden and concealed. The body is put in one place and stays there. And the ruh receives its cleansing. If we don't do this in the last ten days, when do we do it?

Rasulullah, peace be upon him, did it all the time. And when he missed it, he made it up. The state of his qalb and his ruh was unbelievably clean. When you're talking about the Messenger of Allah — when he walked in the desert and the sun was shining on him, he didn't have a shadow, because his Lord outshined the sun. His Lord outshined the sun so his body did not produce a shadow. That is in the hadith literature.

If anyone had done it by scrubbing, it was him, Rasulullah, peace be upon him. The mala'ikah opened his body up and washed his qalb — not once, not twice, but three times. That is why he himself spoke about it. The mala'ikah washed his heart three different times. And he still did i'tikaf. And his wives did it with him.

We come, and it's camping — kids in the corner playing video games, adults in the corner talking about the game, people arguing. I hear complaints from sisters about sisters arguing, children all over the place running around. Brothers and sisters, this is not what we are about. This is not what this time is about.

By abandoning i'tikaf in the way it should be done, we have left and abandoned the sunnah of the Prophet, peace be upon him. That is not what he taught us. If he were to observe those things, he would cry. He would run away crying. We have to be better than who we are.

The Rules of I'tikaf: What Is and Isn't Permitted

The only place that is valid for i'tikaf is the masjid, because Allah said:

"While you are in i'tikaf in the mosques." In other words, i'tikaf is in the masjid. So i'tikaf is not valid at home. The scholars are clear that this cannot be done in a corner of the house. It is a certain place — you have to leave, come into the masjid.

At the same time, i'tikaf going outside the masjid at any time is acceptable in certain necessities, however its spiritual benefits are most prevalent in the last ten days. That's because that's when he, peace be upon him, did it. And later he would do it in the last twenty days of Ramadan as well. It is in the month of Ramadan and particularly those ten days because of the immense barakah that is there, and the chance to catch Laylatul Qadr.

The Reports of Aisha and Ali, may Allah be pleased with them

The scholars agree that i'tikaf is only for the scrubbing of the qalb and the ruh. That's its job. The body has to be still. The body is supposed to be concealed and hidden. Otherwise it doesn't work. It's just camping, just a sleepover. And in that sense it's better to stay home.

They agree that it must be in the masjid — even for women. Although there is an opinion from Imam al-Shafi'i that says it is better for the woman to make i'tikaf in the musalla of her home — not the bedroom, the musalla. But the overwhelming majority of the ulema say no, she has to come to the masjid. And if the masjid is not set up for women to make i'tikaf, there must be a partition. That's what the ulema say. There has to be an extra partition, an extra room has to be built for the women. Because Rasulullah, peace be upon him, let his wives do it. They did it and they continued to do it in his masjid. So no one else can say anything. Accommodations must be made. It is not camping. It is not a sleepover. It is ibadah. They agree on that.

Then come two reports from the Sahabah — one from Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, and the other from Ali, may Allah be pleased with him — about what you can and cannot do.

Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, states that the person performing i'tikaf — and she would know, because she was with Rasulullah, peace be upon him, everywhere, her tent was next to his — she said the person in i'tikaf may not have any kind of intimate contact with his or her spouse. And the person in i'tikaf may not attend a janazah, even if the janazah is in the masjid. That's Aisha's opinion. You cannot attend the janazah even if the janazah is in the masjid. You stay in your prison. You conceal your body. Janazah is not for you. It's for people not performing i'tikaf. You are restricted.

She said he may not visit the sick person either. Nothing. Only dhikr, Quran, du'a, salah. That's the i'tikaf. That's all you do. No cell phones, no chatting, no basketball.

Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, had the same statement but differed on two things, and this became a major point of discussion in our deen. He agreed: no intimate relations, only dhikr, salah, du'a, Quran — nothing more. But he said it is recommended for the person in i'tikaf to attend the janazah in the same masjid, and it is recommended to visit the sick person, provided that person goes and comes back. It's not a holiday. It's not camping, not a sleepover. From those two Sahabah, the scholars took their opinions and presented i'tikaf in its final explanation.

Ordinary Conversation in I'tikaf is Makrooh

All of the four schools agree that normal conversation — listen very carefully, young men and young ladies — normal daily average conversation: when you enter into i'tikaf, it becomes makrooh. "Hey, how are you? How's everything? What are you doing?" — makrooh. Disliked. Makrooh is borderline haram. Average, permissible everyday conversation in i'tikaf is makrooh and counter-productive to i'tikaf. In general we're not supposed to be talking about it anyway. But during i'tikaf it is further restricted. Remember the definition — being in prison. Certain place, certain time, certain actions done in a certain way.

The Opinion of Imam Malik and Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal

The Maliki school and the Hanbali school — Imam Malik himself, and this is recorded in all of the Maliki fiqh books and it is recorded as a sahih valid narration from Imam Malik, who was the Imam of Medina, and also Ahmad ibn Hanbal, who was tortured for upholding the sunnah of the Prophet, peace be upon him — the opinion of Imam Ahmad and Imam Malik is that even teaching in the masjid is not allowed. Lecturing, giving duroos, giving khatirah in the masjid — not allowed. They say not allowed.

Why? Because these last ten days are not for that. They are not for public activities. They are for private activities. According to both of them, public activities are for the first twenty days. The last ten days is a time for all believers to do i'tikaf, and anything that is counter to that is not allowed.

They even said for the person in i'tikaf — the student of fiqh or the 'alim — even for that person, they are not even allowed to read books of hadith or fiqh. Because Rasulullah, peace be upon him, only did dhikr, Quran, and du'a. That's it. Even fiqh, which is normally highly recommended — Imam Malik says it is not allowed for people in i'tikaf. Reading hadith — not allowed. Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, who was one of the greatest hadith scholars, agreed with that, and that was his opinion.

Imam Abu Hanifa differed. His position was that these things are permitted because they are general acts of khayr. But later on in Islamic history, some of the later Hanafi scholars gave fatwas against teaching in the masjid, against khatirah, against duroos in the last ten days, when they saw the state of the ulema and the community abandoning what i'tikaf was really about. And one of the fatwas from the ulema — sent to the Shaykh al-Islam — stated that if there is a khatib or an imam who is giving a dars in the last ten days, put him in jail. That's how serious it is.

It's not a joke. It's not camping. It's not a sleepover. I'tikaf in the last ten days is a big deal.

A Call to Action: Take This Seriously

Brothers and sisters, the purpose of this is to explain the seriousness of something that we've been neglecting. There are people in here in this masjid — men and women — that are doing i'tikaf. They are doing a tremendous form of ibadah. But even those have deficiencies in the way it's being done, and we have to change. Most of what goes on, most of the way that we are doing things now, is counter to the way that it should be done.

And those that are not doing i'tikaf, that are just hanging around in the masjid — they should be doing some i'tikaf. Because if we don't close ourselves now, then when? Next year? The year after? At what point will we stop our routine of abandoning our nafs and our qalb and focus — especially during the time where all of our ulema and all of our traditions say: this is the time to stop and do it.

Take one day. Four hours. Eight hours in the masjid. Say, "I'm in i'tikaf." Take a corner and just go to yourself. Take your son, your daughter, give them a word. Tell them about tasbih.

Like we've seen on average — Muslims from this community in our area — we lose people every month. Some of us in this building are not going to make it to next Ramadan. What are we going to do to put ourselves in a good position to return to Allah? Isn't it worth it to do half an hour of personal ibadah? Isn't it worth it to tell our brothers and sisters, "I'm in i'tikaf — let's talk about this after Eid. Catch me tomorrow. I'm in i'tikaf. I'm working on myself. Give me a couple days."

This is the time. Have conversations with your children. Let them know — this is the time. The time is now. Not tomorrow, not the next day. Now.

May Allah give us tawfiq. May Allah help us to correct ourselves so that we may be corrected and reformed.

Second Khutbah

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon the master of the messengers, and upon his family, his companions all together, and those who follow them in goodness until the Day of Judgment.

I counsel you and myself with the taqwa of Allah. Allah has said:

"Indeed, Allah and His angels send blessings upon the Prophet. O you who believe, send blessings upon him and salute him with all respect."

O servants of Allah — fear Allah. Indeed Allah commands justice, excellence, and giving to relatives, and He forbids immorality, wrongdoing, and oppression. He admonishes you so that perhaps you may remember.

Establish the prayer.