Itikaaf -You have been selected to negotiate on behalf of the Ummah – Hazrat Maulana Yunus Patel (رحمة الله عليه)

Allah Tabarak wa Ta’ala Ihsaan (kindness) and Fadhl (favor) upon you that he chose you to sit in Itikaaf. So you are the ambassadors of the Ummah. You are the negotiator on behalf of the Ummah. The person who is sitting in Itikaaf has sat to negotiate.

Imagine if you take a delegation and sent the delegation to go and negotiate.

I always give this example in my Hajj talks. Nabi Alyhis sallam said that Hujjaaj,they are the delegates of Allah Tabarak wa Ta’ala. 1s They have been chosen as delegates on behalf of the Ummah to go and negotiate, to go and seek from Allah Tabarak wa Ta’ala forgiveness for themselves, for their families, and for the entire Ummat, to seek the removal of the difficulties and the hardships and the problems around the Muslim Ummah. To seek that Allah Tabarak wa Ta’ala puts the Noor of Taqwa and Zuhd and Sabr and shukr into the hearts of every Muslim.

The Hujjaj have been chosen for that.Allah calls them, and now you come here and negotiate. And Allah Ta’ala promises also that I will accept your duas, and I will accept your duas on behalf of everybody that makes duas. Now that Haji Sahib leaves from here, and when he arrives at some airport, and there is a first-class lounge, and he is enjoying himself there. Then he stops over some other country on the way, and they see his beautiful gardens at the hotel there, and beautiful palaces and beautiful things there. So he says, How wonderful and beautiful everything is here. Let us have a nice party here, and we can always get the next plane. And in the meantime, the Hajj is over. 2s

So what happened to those who were sent from the delegation to go and do some negotiations? If a government chose a delegation to go and negotiate on behalf of the government with regards to something and the delegation passed, its time like that, and they failed to negotiate, that government will kick their backs and put them out and say, You are not worthy of being appointed delegates. 1s

So this is our condition—that the majority of the Hujjaj—this is what happens. So those who are in Itikaaf also, you have been chosen to negotiate on behalf of the Ummay. It is a great honor that Allah Tabarak wa Ta’ala has bestowed upon you, that gave you and selected you to negotiate on behalf of the whole Ummat. Now, when can we negotiate? When we spend our time correctly in Itikaaf.

Alhamdulillah. To a large extent, and Alhamdulillah, this year and every other year in this masjid, there is a lot of sukoon and a lot of peace. You don’t get so much of disturbance. 2s

As we used to have in the early days. The whole night, people used to be just gossiping and talking and chit chatting. And in the masjid, the atmosphere with the Itikaaf instead of the Itikaaf, it seemed as if it were a social gathering.

So make the best use of it and find as much seclusion as possible; don’t worry who’s around. You can have 1,000 people, and you can still be alone. Sometimes you are alone, but you are not alone. If a person is alone, but his mind is in all kinds of flow and in everything else besides a lot, then he is also in the masjid. But he’s not in the masjid, and the other person is in the masjid, and a thousand people in Itikaaf with him. But if he has got his connection right with a lot of Allah, then he is oblivious of what is happening around him. He has got the whole masjid. He comes out from his Itikaaf area, takes the Quran Sharif and reads somewhere, reads some kitaab somewhere, or goes and makes dua in some corner or rests. And he is not concerned about who is walking past and who is doing what. Nothing is oblivious because his heart is with Allah Ta’ala. So that is the seclusion—that you are in company, but you are in seclusion. You are sitting next to a person, but you are not even aware of who that person is. 2s

So this is the great wisdom of Rasool sallallahu alaihi wasallam, in making this Itikaaf sunnah muakkadah or making it a habit of his life that the last 10 nights always sat for Itikaaf.

But as I mentioned,that although he mentioned the virtues of Itikaaf, but the entire Ummah didn’t leave their occupation and sit down in Itikaaf. So we should not point fingers at anybody who has not sat, because it was not fardh and wajib for them to sit, and those who are not sitting, then they should appreciate that those people have at least made sacrifices, and they have sat in the masjid, and they are negotiating on our behalf. They are pleading to Allah Tabarak wa Ta’ala on behalf of the entire Ummat. So that’s the negotiation that they are making: “O Allah, we are sinful, we are weak, we are helpless; come to our assistance and help remove our difficulties and problems and the entire Ummat’s problems and difficulties.”

Extracted from Audio and edited