Al-Itikaf is an Arabic word which literally means ‘to seclude or isolate oneself, to restrain oneself, to withdraw or retire, to devote or adhere to somebody, to be engaged with somebody in a way that even one’s eyes do not turn away from him’.

As a term of the Shariah, it means ‘to stay in a mosque for a specific span of time, while detached from all worldly relations, with the intention of worshipful service so as to revive one’s relation of worshipful service to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, with the help of total seclusion’.