I'tikaf in a place to which the minbar was moved after a mosque was demolished and where congregational prayer began to be held

Question

In a city in South Africa there had been a mosque for sixty years in which, besides the five daily prayers, the Jumu‘a and tarawih were held regularly, and i'tikaf (seclusion in the mosque) was also observed in Ramadan. For the sake of expanding the mosque it was demolished, and some of the mosque’s property — for example the floor covering, the minbar and so on — was moved to another building, and there, with the same regularity and with the appointed imam and muezzin, the five daily prayers and the Jumu‘a began…

Answer

A mosque in the Shar‘i sense is one that is a mosque forever and ever. If adhan and congregational prayer are held temporarily in some place — for example, for the sake of renovating and rebuilding the original mosque — then that place will not be a mosque in the Shar‘i sense, and the rulings of a mosque will not apply to it, since i'tikaf takes place in a mosque in the Shar‘i…

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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