Ait’kaaf – The Tormented Sunnah MEANING – To start with, it’s a Sunnah to perform aitkaaf in the last ten days of Ramadhan, which means Rasool Ullah (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) used to perform it all his life. In this ‘Ibâdah a person abandons all his worldly attachments, associations and works and enters the mosque. He dissociates himself from everything and directs himself only to Allâh. For a period of time he remains in complete seclusion and by virtue of engaging in dhikr and repentance, a special relationship with Allâh, a special spiritual situation is created. This is a unique and distinguishing status amongst all the ‘Ibâdah. Moreover, the distinguishing feature of I’tikâf is that as long as he is in this state, every moment is recorded as ‘Ibâdah ‐ his sleeping, his eating and drinking and his every movement is treated as ‘Ibâdah. VIRTUES – There are various ahaadeeth mentioning great virtues of aitkaaf. The Holy Prophet sallallâhu ‘alayhi wasallam is reported to have said: Whoever performs I’tikâf for one day for the sake of seeking the pleasure of Allâh, Allâh will place between him and the fire of Hell three trenches, the distance of which will exceed the distance between the heavens and the earth.” Its reported in another hadeeth that “The I’tikâf of the ten days of Ramadhân is like two Hajj and two Umrah.” OUR PLIGHT – Its very disheartening that today this great Sunnah, which our beloved Nabi performed all his life, is treated as a burden generally by us. If in a masjid nobody observes aitkaaf, all the people residing in that mohalla become sinners. And that is why we at times hear that in some mohalla a person was hired to do aitkaaf for such and such amount (And Allah knows about the truth of such events), because not a single person of that mohalla is willing to leave the worldly matters for ten days. Finally, when a person sits in a masjid to do aitkaaf (or is made to sit), there is a lot of ignorance about the masail of aitkaaf. People generally start acting as per their own thoughts and notions instead of referring to authentic books and mustanad Ulema e Kiraam. This renders the aitkaaf of many void due to serious errors but they don’t even have an idea that they have done something wrong. On the other hand, many people believe certain acts to be compulsory for aitkaaf which are not so in fact, thereby causing unnecessary hardship for themselves. And lastly, even if at least one man per mohalla does perform aitkaaf by this way or that, but sadly there is hardly a single woman in a dozen mohallas who does it. Its as if we have inscribed in our minds that aitkaaf is for men. It should be taken special note of that it’s a great sunnah and the women must try to reap benefits of it. A woman has to perform aitkaaf in that place of the house which has been demarcated for prayers and after the consent of her husband. However, if no such place has been demarcated, then she can demarcate a place in her home for aitkaaf and stay there for ten days. SUMMARY – 1. The sunnah Aitkaaf is a great worship to be performed once a year and therefore must be taken due care of. 2. Aitkaaf is a worship for both men and women. Men have to perform it in masjid whileas women have to perform in their homes and demarcate a place for it. 3. A women also needs the permission of her husband to perform aitkaaf. 4. The masail of aitkaaf must be learned from authentic books or mustanad Ulema e Kiraam and we should not follow our own notions or the things popular in society.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 11:28:15 +0000
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