Comparing the Merits of Leading the Prayer and the Call to Prayer
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Question:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: There is disagreement on the issue of which is better, leading the prayer or the call to prayer? He says: What is the stronger position in this issue?
Answer:
Nothing is stronger, because each of them has virtues that the other does not have, so nothing is stronger. But the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was the imam, and the Rightly Guided Caliphs were the imams. This is what makes leading the prayer stronger. Leading the prayer requires conditions that are not required for the call to prayer, as you heard: “Your eldest among you leads you,” whereas for the call to prayer, it was said, “One of you.” This indicates that the imam is [a position of greater responsibility]. Yes.
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: There is disagreement on the issue of which is better, leading the prayer or the call to prayer? He says: What is the stronger position in this issue?
Answer:
Nothing is stronger, because each of them has virtues that the other does not have, so nothing is stronger. But the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was the imam, and the Rightly Guided Caliphs were the imams. This is what makes leading the prayer stronger. Leading the prayer requires conditions that are not required for the call to prayer, as you heard: “Your eldest among you leads you,” whereas for the call to prayer, it was said, “One of you.” This indicates that the imam is [a position of greater responsibility]. Yes.
Source
شرح كتاب المنتقى من أخبار المصطفى صلى الله عليه وسلم، بداية من أبواب الأذان — islamhouse.com (1:01:44)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.