Fasting and Dawah Ilallah CONTENTS

ITIKAF: A SPIRITUAL RETREAT fulfil one’s responsibility of dawah ilallah, in the hope of becoming eligible for this highest reward. ITIKAF: A SPIRITUAL RETREAT x Fasting means withdrawing from worldly attachments. This reaches a climax during Itikaf. Itikaf is a very special practice, marking the closure of the blessed month of Ramadan. Observers of this practice are required to stay in a mosque for ten days or less, during the last ten days of Ramadan. Itikaf means going into seclusion for the purpose of concentration. In the final days of fasting, when a Muslim is more spiritually prepared and more awakened, he goes into seclusion in the environment of a mosque, freeing his mind of the activities of this world. In spiritual terms, it is meditation; in intellectual terms, it is contemplation. Abu Hurairah reported: “The Prophet used to observe itikaf every year (during Ramadan) for