Iʿtikāf
Iʿtikāf ( Arabic اعتكاف 'Isolation') is a pious exercise in Islam in which the people concerned withdraw into the mosque for several days and / or nights for prayer , devotion and recitation of the Koran , fasting and sexual abstinence on the basis of a vow . The practice usually takes place during the last ten nights of Ramadan and in this case also serves to partake of the special blessing of the Lailat al-Qadr , which is to fall on one of the odd nights of the last days of Ramadan . The itikāf vow can also include silence , but this is only allowed for the nights.
The exercise of itikāf is also referred to in Sura 2: 187, where the believers are asked not to touch their wives on the nights of Ramadan when they are in the mosques.
The ancient Arabic forerunner of Iʿtikāf is ʿukūf , the "lingering" in a sanctuary, which also included fasting, sexual abstinence and the recitation of prayers.
supporting documents
- ↑ See Yaḥyā ibn Muḥammad Ibn Hubayra: al-Ifṣāḥ ʿan maʿānī ṣ-ṣiḥāḥ . Ed. Abū-ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad Ḥasan Muḥammad Ḥasan Ismāʿīl aš-Šāfiʿī. 2 vols. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿilmiyya 1417/1996. Vol. I, p. 224.
literature
- GH Bousquet: Art. "Iʿtikāf" in Encyclopaedia of Islam. Second edition. Vol. IV, p. 280.
- Klaus Lech: History of the Islamic Cult. Legal historical and hadit-critical studies on the development and systematics of 'Ibâdât. Volume I. The ramadan fast. First part. Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1979.
- W. Montgomery Watt; Alford T. Welch: Islam I. Mohammed and the early days, Islamic law, religious life. Stuttgart 1980. pp. 314f, 321f.