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First I am going to mention the rules of itikaf whether somebody spending full ten days in aitikaf
or somebody spending time in nafl aitikaf, the rules will be the same. There will be one extra rule
for people spending time in nafl aitikaf which I will explain at the end.
First of all, like i mentioned the other day, sayyidna Rasulullah (saws) spent last ten days every
year in itikaf. This is a narration from amma Ayesha (ra) in sahih bukhari.
After which she said after Rasulullah (saws) passed away, all his wives used to continue this
tradition.
There are some people who believe women cannott sit in aitikaf, so Ayesha (ra) herself mentions
that Umahat ul Mominin used to sit in aitikaf after the Prophet (saws) and this Is not khaas with
Azwaaj
They are role models for women just like Prophet was role model for men.
When a person makes sunnah itikaf, they should make niyyat before Maghrib, make intention to
spend 10 days in masjid for the sake of Allah swt.
If a person is making nafl itikaf every time they enter masjid they will have to make the niyyah
again. Otherwise if you are in sunnah itikaf and you leave the masjid for a valid reason to make
wudu you dont have to make the niyyat again when you come back.
If you are in nafl itikaf the second you leave the masjid to do wudu, to go to the bathroom, your
itikaf breaks you must make the niyyat again consciously when you re enter into the masjid.
otherwise your itikaf will have been broken.
It is permissible to leave the place of itikaf for a number of reasons;
1. A person can relieve themselves to go to the bathroom. If you are in sunnah itikaaF you
must do so in the masjid bathroom, in the closest bathroom possible. If you go there and
there is a line, it is permissible to wait, to stand there and wait for your turn. All the way
to the bathroom, you should not stop to talk to anyone but if while walking somebody
says salam you can return the salam. thats fine.
2. Secondly if you have to end up waiting for the bathroom and somebody converses with
you while waiting then that is fine also but the second your wait ends you must interrupt
the conversation and the second you are done using the bathroom and have made wudu
(its mustahab to be in a state of wudu at all times) you should come right back into the
masjid.
Person doing sunnah itikaf should not talk to anybody unnecessary on the way or on the
way back from making wudu.
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So two things we did. One is to relieve urself and secong is to make wudu
3. Third reason that a person can leave the masjid is if ghusl becomes farz upon them. There
is a creative way to do ghusl in the bathroom. If for some reason somebody is not able to
do ghusl in the bathroom then they may proceed to the closest bathroom which is
available to them and where they may be able to so ghusl.

4. iA you will have people who bring food and drinkfor you but the fourth reason the fourth
reason,(three reasons, one leaving for the call of nature, second to make wudu, third to
make farz ghusl), is if there is nobody to bring you food and drink then its permissible for
a person in aitikaf to go and get food and drink but they must go, come right back and
consume that food and drink inside the masjid. This is a masala that you would use in
Makkah mukarma and Madina munawara bcoz food is not provided there inside.

Some of the ppl who make aitikaf there, some people choose to live off dates and water,
they basically dont leave and they eat whatever little things they find. But its permissible
for somebody there to leave the masjid to get food and come back.

These are the only 4 reasons with which it is permibblefor a person who is in sunnah
aitikaf to leave the masjid.

If on ur way to the toilet or wudu or for any of these reasons, somebody says salam, you
can say wa laikumusalam to them but you cannot stop. Just keep walking, cannot stop
your movement, you cannot pause for them.

Masala on smoking, but we hope all of you are non smokers. So we will not tell you
what that masala is.

If for any other reason person leaves the masjid, the aitikaf will become void. And then
the aitikaf will convert from a masnun aitikaf to SUNNAH AITIKAF(think it is nafl but
Mj says sunnah).

Things that are permissible to do inside the masjid:

One thing, you should be very clear what the hudud of the masjid are that you are doing
sunnah or nafl aitikaf in.
And this masjid that first door that is closest to us, the inner chamber is the masjid. The
outer chamber doesnt constitute the masjid. So that those glass doors that is the end of the
masjid, the three doors, so you cannot sit there doing aitikaf, or spend any time during
aitikaf.
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Another thing that probably not happens to you, fasting is a shart for sunnah aitikaf. So
for some reason you do something that breaks your fast, your aitikaf breaks as well bcoz
in sunnah aitikaf it is a condition that you shud be in a state of fasting.
When you are inside the masjid, what is it that is permissible to do and what are the
things that are disliked to do and what are the thibgs that wud break ur aitikaf if u
did them?

1. While ur inside the masjidit is permissible to eat n drink
2. It is permissinble to engage in necessary transactions of purchase and sale and even
your work. Its undesirable to do it but if you need to do it, if you are a student you
need to study, if you are a person that works, you need to send some msg, check some
email or you are a researcher, a professor, you need to read or write something, it is
permissible to do so inside a masjid while you are in aitikaf.
3. Its permissible to sleep
4. Its permissible to contract a nikah, if you so wish.
5. Its permissible to change clothes, apply oil, apply itar.
6. Its obviously permissible to read, teach the Quran ul karim, to give any type of lesson
or instruction based on ilm.
7. Its permissible to wash clothes inside the masjid.
8. Its permissible to talk to a person to a limited extent. Talking too much, idle
conversation is disliked, though wont break ur aitikaf.

Disliked things:
1. To engage in too much idle conversation cos that negates the purpose.
2. To be completely silent, you just not speak to anybody. That is also makrooh. You are
not supposed to be absolutely silent during aitikaf.

If a person is in nafl aitikaf, if you wish to spend few days here, few night s here,
know that the nafl aitikaf is not binding on you. Lets say somebody enters the masjid
and makes niyyat for 3 days nafl aitikaf, it doenst mean anything. You could still go
out after two hrs. and if you go out, after 2 hrs there is no qaza. If you break sunnah
aitikaf, there is qaza. It becomes lazim, wajib upon you such that if you break it, you
will have to make up for it. that is a whole lamba masala. If anybody has that, they
can ask me later. If its nafl aitikaf, you can make niyyat for 3 days if you break it, no
problem. And when your in nafl aitikaf, every time you leave the masjid, your aitikaf
breaks so technically you can stop and talk to somebody if you want on your way to
make wudu or on your way back. But obviously normally ppl doing nafl aitikaf
wouldd want ideally to make the nafl aitikaf as close as possible to the soorat, adopt
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the resemblance and likeness. Technically there is no leeway bcoz the person is in
nafl aitikaf.

Aitikaf of women is that they should set aside a place in their home. Ideally there may be
a place already set asidein their home for salaat, ibadat. If not,they should designate a
place the hudud of which should be mutaayyan. They must delineate the corners of the
area of aitikaf clearly. Then they should sit in it just like we mentioned a man should sit
in a masjid. They may leave that area for the same reasons that a man may leave that
area.

A married woman may sit with the consent of her husband. But it is mentioned that a
husband should not refuse consent if the wife wishes to do so.

Obviously woman has to be in a state of purity if she wishes to sit for her aitikaf.

It will be permissible for a woman to do household work within the area of aitikaf such
that she can do it inside the place that she has made for her aitikaf.

Any questions?

Yes, only ghusl that is allowed is farz ghusl.try that it doesnt happen.

What should a person do in aitikaf?

Shud realize that he is given a blessed opportunity to spend 10 days in masjid so

1. Try to pray every salah with jamaat in the front row with takbeer e oola. Ideally they
should try to be sitting in the front row several minutes before the iqamat starts. they
shud make it a point to pray those sunnahs that are offered before the farz, unlike
many times we arrive just at the time of farz rakaat of zuhr and pray sunnah
afterwards. You think that it is obvious but many times is mein bi log susti karte hain.
Try to sit there early and revive the sunnah of intizar u salah
2. Try to offer sunana e ghair muakida and nawafil cos that is something we normally
dont do. they should esp pray 4 sunnah before Asar.

The next thing is that they sould try to engage in extra salawat
1. If they have any qada e umri they should pray that. They will not be able to pray all the
qada e umri but they should pray one qada with every prayer and make niyyat that ya
Allah give me the taufeeq to make for al the qada namaein before I pass away
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2. They should pray tahujjud every night, 8 rakats of tahujjud every night and try to pray
that in the most afdal time which is the last 3
rd
of the night.
3. In addition to that they should pray salatuttasbeeh,which is a particular type of tasbeeh,
reciting the third kalmia. The mothod for this is relatively simple that is you are going to
recite this tasbeeh 785 times in four rakat
I will explain this in one sentence and then explain in detail later. You ahould recite this
tasbeeh in the start and 10 times at the end of every rukun.
How will that work
You should recite salautasbeeh fifteen times when you start and ten times at the end of
every rukuh.
How it will work is you start with subhana kallah humma then recite salatutasbeeh 15 times then
after reciting fatiha and some surah you will say it 10 times.
Then after the rukn of rukuh that is saying subhanallah rabbi allal azeem, recite salatutasbeeh 10
times
Then after kauma that is saying rabbana lakal hamd you will say salatutasbeeh 10 times.
After doing first sajda you say salatutasbeeh 10 times.
Then while sitting after sajda you say it 10 times.
Then after the second sajda you will say it 10 times. You will not say it in ataheeyat because it
does not occur in all four rakat it only occurs in the second rakat.
This is salatutasbeeh
The second thing is that you should do tilawat, read as much of Quran ul karim as you can
ideally you should try and finish Quran in this month. Surely if you are sitting in 10 day aitakaf
you will be able to read some of it but even if you havent youll be able to knock off 3 saparas
in one day.
Chance that this year Ramadan will be twenty nine days so plan accordingly
4. Make it a habit to say istaghfar 100 times a day astaghfirullah rabbi min kulli zambin wa
atubu ilaik and before that darood 100 times a day alah humma sale ala sayyedena
make dua, many dua, lots of dua at the time of tahujjud at the time if zahur, at the time of iftar, in
the middle of the night and also after every prayer, Rasulullah (swas) said that the dua after every
faraid are accepted. Normally we are in such a rush that after every salah we have to get back to
work
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5. Dikr: do as much dikr as you can. Do the formal dikr if you are being instructed formally. If
you are not studying it formally say subhanallahi wabihamdihi subhanallahilazeem or the kalmia
la ilaha illalla however many times you wish
Other time you can spend in reading hadith, reading tafsir, attending bayan etc. This is how you
spend time in aitakaf.
You can study university study, any type of Ilm.