Ibn ‘Umar (Allah be pleased with both of them) reported that
كَانَ يَعْتَكِفُ فِي الْعَشْرِ الأَوَاخِرِ مِنْ رَمَضَانَ
“The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) used to observe i’tikaf in the last ten days of Ramadan.”
(Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1171a)
Virtues of i’tikaf
I’tikaf is prescribed in Islam and it is an act of worship that draws one closer to Allah.
Once this is established, there are many ahadith which encourage us to draw closer to Allah by doing nafl acts of worship . The general meaning of these ahadith includes all kinds of worship, including i’tikaf .
For example, there is the hadith qudsi in which Allah says: “My servant draws not near to Me with anything more loved by Me than the religious duties I have enjoined upon him, and My servant continues to draw near to Me with supererogatory works so that I shall love him. When I love him I am his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes and his foot with which he walks. Were he to ask [something] of Me, I would surely give it to him, and were he to ask Me for refuge, I would surely grant him it.” (Narrated by al-Bukhari, 6502)
