LAHORE – Hundreds of thousands of people will sit in Aitkaf at mosques in their respective localities all over the country including the City on Thursday (today) after Asr prayers to spend last ten days of Ramazan while praying in seclusion. People sit in Aitkaf on Ramazan 20 before Iftar to seek blessing and forgiveness from the Almighty and search for Lailatul Qadr in odd nights of the holy month of fasting. They will come out of seclusion after sighting of the Shawal moon. Law enforcement agencies have made elaborate security arrangements with proper deployment in the close vicinity of major mosques and imam bargahs to avoid any untoward incident. Thousands of Muslims will sit in Aitkaf at Minhaj-ul-Quran Aitkaf City, Jamia Masjid Al-Qadsia, Badshahi Masjid, Masjid Wazir Khan, mosques run by Aukaf Department and mosques in every nook and corner of the City. Hundreds of women will sit in Aitkaf at mosques where separate arrangements have been made. Majority of the womenfolk will perform the Sunnah while praying in seclusion at specified places in their houses. Thousands of Muslims including foreigners will sit in Aitkaf at Jamiaul Minhaj Model Town. What’s special in this Aitkaf is that hundreds of women will also sit in. After Harimain Sharifain, the world’s largest Aitkaf is held by Minhaj-ul-Quran, in which huge numbers of youngsters from all over the world including America and Britain will sit in Aitkaf. Addressing a press conference in Aitkaf City, Sheikh Zahid Fayyaz, head of central Aitkaf committee and Jawad Hamid, secretary of the committee, have said that all arrangements have been completed for Aitikaf 2012 to be held from Thursday onwards. Thousands of participants, both male and female, from across Pakistan would attend the Aitkaf at separate places. The caravans of the intending people have already started arriving at Aitkaf City. The registration process got completed one week before the commencement of Aitkaf and there was no space for the new comers. A large number of people from overseas will also attend Aitkaf. Sheikh Zahid Fayyaz said that Aitkaf City was exempted from loadshedding for last three years. He appealed to the President, Prime Minister, Chief Minister and Chairman LESCO to exempt Aitkaf City from load-shedding. He said that there was a likelihood of water shortage during sehri and iftari as catering to thousands of people without electricity was not easy in this hot and humid weather. Ahmad Nawaz Anjum, GM Malik, Sajid Mahmood Bhatti, Qazi Faiz-ul-Islam, and heads of administrative committees were also present on the occasion. Zahid Fayyaz said that about 2000 youths of Minhaj Youth League and MSM would perform the security duties during the ten days. He said that security cameras had been installed at different places, while police and law enforcement agencies had made special arrangements for security. He said that 30 huge fans had been installed in the courtyard of the Mosque. All other arrangements such as availability of water for abolition and cleanliness were also made and a team of 25 doctors would also be present to treat patients if any. Four ambulances of Minhaj Welfare Foundation have also been detailed at the City. Thousands of men would attend Aitkaf at Jamia al-Minhaj and women at Minhaj Girls College. The chief highlight of Aitkaf 2012 is the keynote speeches of Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, which he would deliver on the subject of mysticism and spiritualism after Fajr prayers. Three huge sized LED screens have also been installed so that the participants would have no difficulty in listening to the speeches. 

Trending Discussions

Nawaz's call for peace talks welcomed by TTP

Musharraf had no authority to issue PCO: SC

Worst power outages as shortfall crosses 7,000MW

Musharraf can be tried in special court: SC