What is i'tikaf, and how is it done?

What it actually is

The word itself means "to cling to something and hold yourself to it," and the scholars define it in the Shari'ah as staying in the mosque for the obedience of Allah. Ibn Qudamah gives it as "residence in the mosque," and Ibn 'Uthaymeen explains the purpose behind it: a person cuts himself off from the world and its pleasures and gives himself over, in that mosque, to the worship of his Lord — a kind of training of the self.

Shaykh Ibn Baz described the inner reality of it in a way worth keeping in mind:

"Some of them said: i'tikaf is severing your ties with all of creation in order to connect with the service of the Creator."— Shaykh Ibn Baz, on i'tikaf

The practical content of that time is prayer, reciting the Qur'an, remembrance of Allah, supplication and seeking forgiveness. That is the point of the whole exercise, and everything else is arranged around it.

When it is best

The Prophet ﷺ kept i'tikaf in the last ten nights of Ramadan until he died, and his wives kept it after him — reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim. In the year he passed away he kept it for twenty days. The reason for the last ten specifically is the search for Laylat al-Qadr (the Night of Decree), which the Prophet ﷺ instructed us to seek in those nights.

Outside Ramadan it remains a sunnah. Shaykh Ibn Baz notes that the Prophet ﷺ kept i'tikaf in the first ten of Shawwal in some years, and that there is nothing wrong with keeping it in Shawwal, Dhu al-Qa'dah, Dhu al-Hijjah, Muharram or any other time. It is an unrestricted sunnah in every season — but in the mosque, and in Ramadan, and in the last ten of Ramadan, it is best.

The conditions that make it valid

Three conditions are set out by al-Tuwayjiri, and they are the ones to check before you begin:

Ibn 'Uthaymeen adds that it is not valid from a child who has not reached discernment, or from an insane person, since it is like prayer and fasting in that respect.

On the mosque itself: it must be a masjid in the proper sense, not merely a place where some prayers happen to be offered. Al-Shanqiti explains that a musalla — a place where some prayers are held but not others — is not a location for i'tikaf. The evidence is the verse in which Allah says:

"And do not have relations with them while you are in i'tikaf in the mosques"— Qur'an 2:187

Since the prohibition of intimacy is attached specifically to the mosques, the scholars understood that i'tikaf belongs to them alone.

Choosing the mosque

The best mosques for it are, in order, the Sacred Mosque in Makkah, then the Prophet's Mosque, then al-Aqsa — al-Tuwayjiri records the reward of prayer in each. Beyond those, any mosque of the Muslims in which the congregation is established is a valid place for i'tikaf.

The practical question is the Friday prayer. If your stay will run through a Friday, the better choice is a mosque where Friday prayer is held, so that you are not forced to leave. If you keep i'tikaf in a mosque without Friday prayer, that is still valid — you simply go out for the Friday prayer and return. Al-Shanqiti draws a sharper line for the person who has bound himself to the full ten nights by a vow: in that case he must be in a mosque where Friday prayer is held, because the unavoidable exit would break a continuous vow.

Leaving the mosque

Ibn 'Uthaymeen divides going out into three categories, and this is the clearest way to think about it:

1. Permitted — going out for something you cannot avoid, by law or by nature: the Friday prayer, eating and drinking if no one is bringing them to you, ablution and obligatory bathing, and answering the call of nature.
2. Permitted only if you stipulated it — going out for a voluntary act of worship such as visiting the sick or attending a funeral. If you made it a condition at the start of your i'tikaf, it is allowed; if not, it is not.
3. Not permitted at all — going out for something that contradicts i'tikaf itself: going home, shopping, or being with your spouse. This is not allowed whether you stipulated it or not.

What is forbidden during it

Intimacy with your spouse and everything that leads to it is forbidden, and this is the one prohibition the Qur'an states explicitly for the one in i'tikaf. Ibn 'Uthaymeen says both the act and its preliminaries are forbidden. Ibn 'Abd al-Barr, reporting the Maliki position, adds that a kiss or a touch, even without climax, invalidates the i'tikaf — and that deliberate eating during it does too, on the view that i'tikaf requires fasting.

That last point is a real disagreement, and it should be named. The Hanbalis, and Shaykh Ibn Baz, and Shaykh Ibn 'Uthaymeen hold that fasting is not a condition — you may keep i'tikaf while not fasting, and this is the sounder view, since acts of worship require only the conditions the Lawgiver set, and no evidence establishes fasting as one. The Malikis hold that it is a condition, and Ibn 'Abd al-Barr reports this from Malik and most of the people of Madinah, citing 'A'isha's words that there is no i'tikaf except with fasting. Ibn Taymiyyah also chose this position. The practical consequence the Hanbalis draw is that on the Maliki view one could not keep i'tikaf on the day of Eid or the days of Tashriq, since no fasting is valid then.

Key takeaways

• I'tikaf is a sunnah, not an obligation — unless you vow it, in which case it becomes binding on you.
• It is valid any time of year, for any length, even a single hour; it is best in Ramadan, and best of all in the last ten nights.
• It must be in a mosque where the congregation prays — not at home, and not in a place used only for occasional prayers.
• Fasting is not a condition on the sounder view, though the Malikis hold that it is.
• Intimacy and its preliminaries are forbidden, and going out is limited to genuine necessity, or to what you stipulated at the outset.

Further reading

• Ibn Qudamah, al-Mughni, the Book of I'tikaf
• Ibn 'Abd al-Barr, al-Istidhkar, the Book of Fasting, chapter on i'tikaf
• Ibn 'Uthaymeen, Fatawa Arkan al-Islam

And Allah knows best.