I'tikaf in a room adjoining the mosque

Question

In a newly built mosque, in the rear part on the northern side, there is a small three-cornered room whose door opens into the mosque itself. The mutawalli (trustee) of the mosque stated that when this mosque was being built, this part was built with the very intention of being mosque, but because of straightening the rows the committee's advisers separated this part, and it was decided that the mosque's belongings and the like would be kept in it. May a mu'takif sit for i'tikaf in this room or not?

Answer

It is not permissible to assign any part of the mosque that is meant for prayer to some other use and to end the prayer there. From the outward form of the room it appears that it is outside the mosque and is not mosque; it was built for the imam or the mutawalli or for belongings. Therefore i'tikaf should not be performed in this room.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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