The chapter about azān (adhān) has been translated from the
book Durr-ul-mukhtār and from its explanation, Radd-ul-mukhtār, and summarized
below:
Azān means public announcement in certain Arabic phrases in
prescribed order. It is not azān to say its translation. Even if it makes its
meaning understandable, it cannot be recited in Persian or other languages. The
first azān was performed in Mekka on the night of Mirāj before the Hegira. In
the first year of the Hegira, it became a command to call the azān to announce
the time of salāt. At district mosques, it is sunnat to call it at a high
place, and the voice must be loud. But one should not exert oneself to shout
aloud. [As it is understood, shouting is necessary as loud as to be heard in
ones own district. More than this is not permitted. There is no need to use a
loud-speaker. It is a bidat to practice the azān or iqāmat through a
loud-speaker or radio broadcast. An ibādat done with bidat is not acceptable
but sinful.] It is sunnat-i muakkada for men to call the azān for five prayers
each day, for performing the omitted [qadā] prayers that are fard, and towards
the khatīb at Friday prayers. It is mekrūh for women to say the azān or the
iqāmat. For it is harām for them to raise their voice. The azān is said at a
high place in order to announce the time to others. But the azān that is said
for the ready jamāat or for oneself is said on the ground. [It is written in Tanwīr-ul-azhān, It is tahrīmī mekrūh to say the
azān while sitting. It has been understood through tawātur[1] that it (must) be said standing]. The azān or
the iqāmat is not said for the namāz of witr, Iyd, tarāwīh or janāza. It is
not acceptable to call the azān before the prescribed time, it is a grave sin.
The azān or iqāmat which is said before the time (of prayer) begins must be
repeated after the time begins. It is not permissible to call the azān like a
song so as to add vowel points or letters or prolong the letters, or to listen
to the azān said or the Qurān read in this manner.
[It is written in the section about Medina of the book Mirāt-ul-
---------------------------------
[1] Information conveyed through an unbroken chain of trustworthy Muslim scholars throughout the centuries since the time of our blessed Prophet, Muhammad 'alaihis-salām'.
harāmeyn[1], Calling the azān commenced in Medīna in the
first year of the Hegīra. Before that time only the words Assalātu jāmia were
uttered at prayer times. It was Bilāl-i Habashī who said the azān in Medīna
first. And Habīb bin Abdurrahmān was first to say it in Mekka. The first azān
at Friday prayer is a sunnat of hadrat Uthmān. Formerly it was said in the
mosque, too. Hadrat Ebbān bin Uthmān, governor of Medīna in the time of
Abdulmalīk, had it said on the minaret. In the year 700, Melik Nāser bin Mansūr
had the salāt-u-salām called on minarets before the azāns of Friday prayers. Prophets of Isrāil would say the tesbīh before the
azān of morning prayer. Maslama bin Mahled, one of the Sahāba, as he was
governor of Egypt, being commanded by hadrat Muāwiyya, had the first minaret
built in
---------------------------------
[1] A history book of five
volumes written in the Turkish language by Eyyūb Sabrī Pāsha 'rahmatullāhi ta'ālā
'alaih', (d. 1308 [1890 A.D.],) one of the admirals of Abd-ul-Hamīd Khān II
'rahmatullāhi ta'ālā 'alaih', (1258 [1842 A.D.] - 1336 [1918],
[2] A
commentary to the book Mishkāt, written in the Fārisī language by 'Abd-ul-Haqq
Dahlawī (958 [1551 A.D.] - 1052 [1642],
[3] An annotation to the book Durr-ul-mukhtār, rendered by Ahmad bin Muhammad Ismā'īl Tahtāwī, (d. 1231 [1815 A.D.].)
is a grave sin to light lamps on minarets in order
to announce prayer times].
[It is written in the books Tabyīn-ul-haqāiq[1] and Tahtāwī that,
Rasūlullah sallallāhu alaihi wa sallam said to Bilāl-i Habashī, Put your two fingers on your ears, so that your voice will
be louder. It is better to put the hands on the ears. For, it is
not a sunnat to do so to perform the azān. Yet it is a sunnat to do so to
increase the voice. For the angel who said the azān in the (above-named
Sahābīs) dream did not do so. It was made a sunnat not in order to recite the
azān but in order to increase the voice . For the causal clause, so that your
voice will be louder, points to the hikmat in doing it. If the fingers are not
put on the ears, the azān will be better. If they are put on the ears, the
voice being louder will be better. It is seen that to put the fingers on the
ears is not a sunnat for the azān, although it increases the voice. But,
because it has been commanded, it is not a bidat, either. It is understood
that the loudspeakers used in some mosques today, although they increase the
voice, are not sunnat for the azān and are bidat, and besides this, they cause
the sunnat of raising the fingers to the ears to be ommitted. It is seen that
minarets are not constructed for some mosques on which loudspeakers are placed.
[It is stated in the three hundred and twenty-second page of the fifth volume
of Fatāwā-yi-Hindiyya, It is
permissible to build a minaret in order to have the quarter hear the voice. It
is not permissible if it is impossible. This comes to mean that using a
loudspeaker is not permissible].
It is written in Radd-ul-muhtār (Ibni Ābidīn) and in Uqūd-ud-durriyya that, The azān called by several muazzins together on a minaret or during jumā khutba is named the Azān-i Jawq. To call it together in order to increase the voice is a sunnat-i hasana and jāiz (permissible) because it is mutawārith, i.e. it has been practiced for centuries. Allāhu taālā likes what Muslims like. It is also written in Barīqa on page 94 that, What Muslims find nice is nice according to mujtahids, too. It makes no difference whether non-mujtahids like it or not. See Endless Bliss, 5th fascicle, chapter 1, p. 28. Hence it is quite clear that some ignorant trendy avant gardes recommending the utility of loud-
---------------------------------
[1] A. commentary to Abdullah bin Ahmad
Nasafī's book Kenz-ud-daqā'iq, rendered
by 'Uthmān bin 'Alī Zeylā'ī, (d. 743 [1343 A.D.], Egypt.)
speakers in calling the azān is of no value. It is
a bidat, and therefore a grave sin, to change the acts of worship with the
non-mujtahids approvals and practices].
Saying the iqāmat is better than (saying) the azān. The azān and the
iqāmat must be said towards the qibla. One must not talk while saying them, nor
acknowledge any speech of greeting. If one talks, one will have to say the both
again.
What prayers of namāz do we say the azān and the iqāmat for? We will
explain this in three different articles:
1 - For qadā prayers: When performing qadā prayers individually or in
jamāat in the countryside, in fields, it is sunnat for men to say the azān and
the iqāmat aloud. People, genies, rocks that hear the voice will bear witness
on the Rising Day. He who performs a couple of qadā prayers one after another
should say the azān and the iqāmat first. Then, before performing each of the
following qadā prayers he should say the iqāmat. It will be all right if he
does not say the azān for the following prayers of qadā.
Women do not say the azān or the iqāmat when they perform the namāz
individually whether they perform it in its time or they make qadā of it.
He who makes qadā in a mosque says the azān and the iqāmat only as
loudly as he himself can hear. If a couple of people make qadā of a namāz in
jamāat in a mosque, they do not say the azān or the iqāmat. If all the people
in a mosque are going to make qadā of a namāz in jamāat, the azān and the
iqāmat are said. But it is mekrūh to perform a namāz of qadā in jamāat in a
mosque. For, it being a grave sin to leave a namāz to qadā (to postpone it till
after its prescribed time is over), it is not permissible to announce it
publicly. Performing a prayer of qadā in jamāat requires that the imām and the
jamāat must be performing the same prayer of the same one day. For example, a
person who is going to make qadā of a certain Sundays early afternoon prayer
cannot follow and be jamāat for a person who will make qadā of, say, Tuesdays
early afternoon prayer or who performs early afternoon prayer of the present
day even if it is Sunday, too.
He who makes qadā in his home says the azān and the iqāmat only as
loudly as to be heard in the room, so that the number of witnesses be more. [So
does a person who performs qadā of a fard prayer instead of a sunnat prayer.]
2 - He who performs the times namāz individually at home or in jamāat
does not have to say the azān or the iqāmat. For the azān and the iqāmat said
in mosques are counted as being said in homes, too. But it is better to say
them. It is not necessary to hear the muazzins voice. If the azān is not said
in mosques, or if it is not sahīh because they have not fulfilled its
conditions, the person who performs namāz individually in his home says the
azān and the iqāmat.
After the times namāz is performed in a local mosque or in a mosque
whose jamāat are certain people, a person who performs it individually does
not say the azān or the iqāmat. After each of daily prayers is performed in
jamāat with the imām on the mihrāb in such mosques, other jamāats can be made
again. While telling about being an imām on the three hundred and seventy-first
page, it says that if the imāms for the following jamāats stand on the mihrāb,
too, the azān and the iqāmat are not said. If the imāms do not stand on the
mihrāb the azān and the iqāmat must be said as loudly as to be heard by the
jamāats.
In mosques on roads or in those which have no imāms or muazzins or
certain jamāats, various people who come in at various different times make
various jamāats for the namāz of the same prayer time. They say the azān and
the iqāmat for each jamāat. Also, he who performs namāz individually in such a
mosque says the azān and the iqāmat as loudly as he himself hears.
3 Travellers[1], when they make jamāat or when each performs
namāz individually, say the azān and the iqāmat. If a person who is performing
namāz individually has friends with him who are performing namāz, too, he may
not say the azān. A safarī (traveller) says the azān and the iqāmat when he
performs namāz individually in a house, too. For the azān said in the mosque
does not include his namāz. If some of the safarī people say the azān in a
house, those who perform the (same) namāz later on at the same place, do not
say it. At least three people ought to set out for a travel, and one of them
must be their emīr (commander).
The azān said by an āqil
(mature in wisdom) boy, a blind man, a bastard, or an ignorant villager who
knows prayer
---------------------------------
[1] A person taking a
long-distance journey dealt with in chapter 15, is called 'musāfir'.
times and how to say the azān, is permissible
without any karāhat. It is tahrīmī mekrūh for a junub person to say the azān or
the iqāmat, for a person without an ablution to say the iqāmat, for a woman, a
sinner, a drunk person, a child who is not āqil to say the azān, or (for
anyone) to say the azān sitting. In such cases, it must be repeated. The azāns
being sahīh requires the muazzins being an āqil Muslim knowing the prayer
time and his words should be dependable, that is, he must be an ādil person.
(By āqil we mean one who has reached the age of wisdom). [Likewise, one must
be sure that the calendars giving the prayer times have been prepared by such a
Muslim, and at least a Muslim should witness their accuracy. The prayer times
on the calendars which were prepared by sālih Muslims and followed by all
Muslims for centuries should not be altered.] For a namāz being sahīh (acceptable)
one should know the exact time for performing it. The reason why the azān of a
sinner, that is, he who drinks alcohol, gambles, looks at nāmahram women,
allows his wife and daughter to go out without covering themselves , is not
sahīh is because his word on worships is not dependable.
[As it is seen, it is not permissible to say the azān through the radio
or with loudspeakers on minarets or to say it before its prescribed time or to
listen to it as azān. It is not acceptable, plus the fact that it is sinful. It
must be said again compatibly with its conditions. For it is a sound made by
electricity caused by the voice of an unknown, unseen person; especially, sound
made by a record is not azān at all. Furthermore, our Prophet
(sallallahu alaihi wasallam) declared, Those who
do not worship as we do are not in our community. Azān must be said
at a high place by a pious Muslim as he (the Prophet)
had it said. For instance, when the azān for the early afternoon prayer is said
before its prescribed time, the early sunnat of the early afternoon prayer is
performed at a karāhat time. Insisting on smaller sins develops into a grave
sin.
It is sunnat for a person who hears the azān to repeat the azān
silently what he hears, even if he is junub or reading the Qurān. He does not
say anything else, does not respond to a speech of greeting, does not do any
work. It is wājib for men to stop working and go to the mosque when they hear
the azān. One can make jamāat with ones household at home. Yet it is better
to go to the mosque [if there is a pious imām in the mosque].
[It is written in the book Jawhara[1], It is written in the commentary of Kerhī that the azān said in the Persian language
is not sahīh. This is a clear and a truest statement. It is written in Marāqifalāh[2] that it is not permissible to say the azān in any
language other than Arabic even if it would be understood that it is the azān.]
The azān cannot be repeated while listening to the Khutba, while ones
awrat parts are exposed, while eating, or studying a lesson on dīn or while
reading Qurān al-kerīm in a mosque. But,
if the azān is not being said compatibly with the sunnat, e.g. if some of its
words are changed or translated or if it is being said partly melodiously, or
if the sound of azān is coming from a loudspeaker , he who hears it does not
repeat any of its words.
[On the 1031st and 1062nd pages of Berīqa,
it is written: One who does not know the times of namāz or commits taghannī or
elhān, that is, says it with musical notes, is not eligible for calling the
azān. It is not permissible but gravely sinful to appoint such an ineligible
person as a muezzin. It is written in Bezzāziyya that
it is harām by unanimity to recite the Qurān, dhikr or prayer (duā) with
elhān. So is the case with calling the azān and saying it before its time.
Taghannī[3] is permitted in the azān solely while saying the
two Hayya alā... The taghannī
permitted in reciting the Qurān al-kerīm
means that it should be recited fearing Allāhu taālā and is done according to
the science of tajwīd. Otherwise, taghannī by altering sounds or words or
spoiling the meaning or verse is unanimously harām. Tarjī, that is, recitation
by repetitively magnifying and lowering the voice, in the Qurān and azān is
prohibited by the Hadīth. Listening to such recitations is
---------------------------------
[1] Jawhara-t-un-nayyira, the abridged version of Sirāj-ul-wahhāj,
by Abū Bakr bin 'Alī Haddād Yemenī
'rahmatullāhi ta'ālā 'alaih', (d. 800 [1397
A.D.].) It should not be mistaken for Jawhara-t-ut-tawhīd, a
valuable work written in the science of Kelām by the great scholar and Walī Ibrāhīm
Laqānī Mālikī 'rahmatullāhi ta'ālā 'alaih', (d. 1041, [1632 A.D.].)
[2] Written by Abul-Ikhlās Hasan bin Ammār
Shernblālī 'rahmatullāhi ta'ālā
'alaih', (994-1069 [1658 A.D.], Egypt.)
[3] Chanting, singing.
also harām.] Also, he who hears the azān said
before its prescribed time or by a junub person or a woman does not repeat it.
If a person hears and repeats the azān said at some place, he does not repeat
it again when he hears it said at some other place. Upon hearing the parts of Hayya alā..., you do not repeat them, but say, Lā hawla walā quwwata illā billāh. After saying
the azān you say the salawāt and then say the prescribed prayer of azān. After
saying Esh hadu anna Muhammadan Rasūlullah
the second time, it is mustahab to kiss the nails of both thumbs and rub them
gently on the eyes. Though the hadīth stating this fact is written in Tahtāwīs Hāshiyatu
Marāqil-falāh, this hadīth is reported to be daīf in Radd al-mukhtār and Hazīnat
ul-maārif[1] (page 99). This is not done while saying the
iqāmat. It is not sunnat but it is mustahab for a person who hears the iqāmat
to repeat it. A person who enters the mosque while the iqāmat is being said sits
down. He does not wait standing. He stands up as all the others do as the
muazzin says, Hayya-alal-felāh.
Ibni Ābidīn, while explaining the
sunnats of namāz, states that it is sunnat for the imām to raise his voice so
as to be heard by the jamāat when beginning the namāz, when passing from one
rukn to another, when performing the salām (to finish the namāz). It is mekrūh
to raise it too loud. For beginning the namāz the imām must say the tekbīr
(Allahu akbar) and must not think of having it heard by the jamāat. Otherwise,
his namāz will not be sahīh. When all the jamāat do not hear the imām, it is
mustahab also for the muazzin to raise his voice as loud as to be heard by the
jamāat. If the muazzin does not think of beginning the namāz but shouts only
in order to get the jamāat to hear, his namāz will not be sahīh, nor will the
namāz of those who do not hear the imām but begin the namāz by the muazzins
voice only. For in that case they will have followed someone who is not
performing the namāz. It is mekrūh also for the muazzin to shout more loudly
than enough for the jamāat to hear. As informed unanimously by the savants of
the four Madhhabs, while all the jamāat hear the imāms voice it is mekrūh and
nastily bidat for the muazzin to repeat the tekbīr aloud. In fact, it is
written in Bahr-ul-fatāwā, by the Mufti
of Erzurum, Qadizāda, in
---------------------------------
[1] Written by
Muhammad 'Ubaydullah Serhendī 'rahmatullāhi taālā 'alaih', (1038 [1628 A.D.] - 1083 [1672], Serhend.)
Fath-ul Qadīr[1], and toward the end of the booklet Ustuwānī[2], which is written on the margins of the book (Miftāh-ul-Cennet Żlmihāl)[3], In small masjids, if the muazzin says the
tekbīr aloud though the imāms tekbīr can be heard, his namāz will be
nullified.
[In addition to the fact that it is sinful to raise the voice more than
necessary, what is produced by the loud-speaker is not the imāms or the
muazzins voice. Their voice turns into electricity and magnetism. So what is
heard is the sound produced by electricity and magnetism. It is necessary to
follow the voice of a person who is performing the same namāz. The namāz of
those who follow the voice of someone who is not performing the same namāz, or
the sound produced by any apparatus, is not sahīh. It is written on the five
hundred and seventeenth page of the first volume of the book Radd-ul-muhtār, If a hāfizs voice spreads out
and gets multiplied on mountains, in desert, in forests or through any other
means, these second sounds will not be the Qurān. It is not necessary to
perform sajda[4] with the āyat of sajda heard from them. It is
written in Halabī-yi-kebīr that these
recitals are not human recitals, but they are like human recitals. These clear
statements by specialists of Islam show that it is wrong to say or read or
listen to the azān or the Qurān al-kerīm
through radios or loud-speakers or to perform namāz by following them. It is
written in detail on page 2361 of the third volume of the book of Tafsīr
written by Muhammad Hamdi Efendi of Elmalż that it is not permissible to call
the azān or to recite the Qurān al-kerīm
through a loudspeaker or on the radio. In especial, it is both not sahīh and an
abominable bidat to follow an imām in another building through a loudspeaker.
It is a grave sin. Please see the third page of the seventy-second chapter and
also the fifty-second chapter in the first part.
The loud-speaker put on minarets has become a means of laziness for
some people and caused them to say the azān sitting in dark rooms without
following the sunnat. It is written in
---------------------------------
[1] Written
by Ibni Humām, Kemal-ad-dīn Muhammad bin 'Abd-ul-Wāhid Sivāsī 'rahmatullāhi ta'ālā
'alaih', (790 [1388 A.D.] - 861 [1456],) as
a commentary to the book Hidāya.
[2] Written by Muhammad bin Ahmad Ustuwānī
'rahmatullāhi ta'ālā 'alaih', (d. 1072 [1662 A.D.],
Damascus.)
[3] Written by Muhammad bin Qutb-ud-dīn
Iznīkī 'rahmatullāhi ta'ālā 'alaih'.
[4] Please
see the sixteenth chapter for kinds of sajda (prostration).
Fatāwā-yi-Hindiyya, It is mekrūh to call the azān before the prayer
time comes, to say it inside the mosque, to say it sitting, to raise the voice
more than ones normal puissance, not to say it in the direction of qibla, or
to say it melodiously. A person who arrives as the iqāmat is being said, sits
down. Then he stands up together with all the others as the muazzin says
hayya-alal-felah. Ibni Ābidīn states
at the beginning of the subject about namāz, The azān called at its prescribed
time is the Islamic azān. The azān called before its time is no more than a
talk. It means to make fun of Islam. And minarets, our spiritual ornaments
that have been soaring in the sky for centuries, have been made a mast of
loud-speaker because of this atrocious bidat. Islamic savants have always
consented to scientific inventions. So it is doubtless that useful broadcasting
by TVs, radios and loud-speakers everywhere is an invention which Islam
consents to and will utilize. But it has been harmful to deprive Muslims of the
sweet voice of azān and to conduct the worships with the lacerating sound of
the loud-speaker. It is unnecessary prodigality to install loud-speakers in
mosques. When this apparatus did not exist, which clatters as if it were a
church bell instead of the voices of pious Believers that would impress hearts
with īmān divinely, the azāns said on minarets and the voices of tekbīr in
mosques used to move even foreigners to enthusiasm. The jamāat that filled the
mosques upon hearing the azāns called at every quarter used to perform their
namāz in khushū (deep and humble
reverence), as had been in the time of the Sahāba. This heavenly effect of the
azān that would move Believers to raptures has been fading away in the metallic
sounds of loudspeakers.] [The sixth booklet in the book Ghāyat-ut-tahqīq, by Muhammad Hayāt-i-Sindī is
entitled Hād-ud-dāllīn. In a hadīth-i-sherīf
quoted in this booklet and borrowed from Imām-i-Abū Nuaym Isfahānīs book
entitled Hilyat-ul-Awliyā, which in its
turn quotes it on the authority of Abdullah ibni Abbās,[1]
---------------------------------
[1] Abdullah ibni Abbās 'radiy-Allāhu 'anhuma' was the son of who was Rasūlullah's youngest paternal uncle. He was born in Mekka, and passed away in Tāif in 68 A.H. [687]. He was tall, white-complexioned, and handsome. (Seādet-i-ebediyye, p. 1043)
Rasūlullah sall-Allāhu
alaihi wa sallam stated: When Iblīs (Shaytān,
the devil) was made to descend to the earth, he asked Allāhu taālā: When Ādam
(alaihissalām) was made to descend, You gave him Books and Prophets to show Your born
slaves the way to Paradise and happiness. What are the Books and the Prophets You are going to
give him? Allāhu taālā declared: They are the Angels, the well-known Prophets, and the four
well-known Books. The devil said: What books and prophets are You going to
give me so that I may mislead Your born slaves? Allāhu taālā declared: Your
books are poetry and music that provoke the nafs into excessive behaviour. Your
prophets are
soothsayers, fortune-tellers and sorcerers, and your food, which undermines
peoples mental capacity and blackens their hearts, is what they eat and drink
without the Basmala, (i.e. without saying
the name of Allah,) and intoxicating drinks.
Your advice is lies, your home is sports fields and public baths, your snares
are girls who go out naked, and your mosques are assemblages of fisq (sinning). Your muazzins
are mizmārs [musical instruments]. In other words, the
instruments used by muazzins are guides that will lead to Hell. Hence, it is a
grave sin to use radios and loudspeakers in religious practices because Allāhu
taālā and our Prophet call them Shaytāns azān
and muazzin.]
He who dislikes or makes fun of any azān said compatibly with the
sunnat, or who discredits it by words or actions, becomes a disbeliever. But he
who mocks a muazzin does not become a disbeliever.[1]
Being an imām is better than being a muazzin, and saying the iqāmat is
better than saying the azān.
How fortunate is a lad,
Who reads the Qurān;
When he hears azān and iqāmat,
His heart swells with īmān.
---------------------------------
[1] It
goes without saying, at this point, that it is a grave sin to mock a person. Please see the
last paragraph of the first fascicle of Endless Bliss, the last three
paragraphs of the forty-third chapter of the same book, and the
quotation from the book Jilā-ul-qulūb in the twenty-first chapter of the fifth fascicle of Endless
Bliss.