Continuation of the explanation of the hadith of Malik ibn al-Huwayrith (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: ( . . . When the time for prayer arrives, let one of you call the adhan . . . ) .

The Shaykh : Then the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) taught them while they were traveling, as they were leaving the presence of the Messenger (peace be upon him) to bid him farewell. He said to them: In this passage, there is a legal ruling that the majority of people have also neglected, which is the obligation of the adhan for prayer. If there are two people and they need to pray, one of them must call the adhan, and it is necessary. The adhan is not only obligatory in the mosque. In other words, the prescription of the adhan is not solely for informing people of the arrival of the prayer time. It is not prescribed for that purpose alone, but it is prescribed for other objectives, including worship and drawing near to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) through this adhan, which contains the testimony of Allah’s oneness and the prophethood of His Prophet. Just as the intended purpose of the prayer itself is submission to Allah and worship of Him, so too is the intended purpose of the adhan the worship of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and submission to Him. However, the adhan has another objective, which is informing people. We must also know that this objective of informing is not achieved only with regard to mosques. I repeat what I am saying: the purpose of the adhan is not only to inform people, but also to worship Allah and affirm His oneness. Furthermore, the purpose of informing through the adhan is not limited to informing the people who hear the adhan announced from the mosques, but it also intends to inform other people, or in other words, a creation that we may not see. The Messenger (peace be upon him) pointed to this reality in a hadith narrated by 'Abd al-Razzaq in his Musannaf from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), the meaning of which is: There is no man who is in a barren land. This is a creation of Allah. Who are they? They are either angels or from the believing jinn. Therefore, we should not assume that the adhan is prescribed only to inform the people around the mosque. No, the adhan is prescribed even in the desert where you do not see a human being with your own eyes. An ignorant person might say to the one calling the adhan in this desert, but the explanation comes in the hadith of the Messenger (peace be upon him), where he said what was mentioned before: if a man is in a barren land and the time for prayer arrives, and he calls the adhan and the iqamah and prays, then those of Allah’s creation whose ends cannot be seen will pray behind him. So, the adhan there is heard by people who are not of our kind, not human beings. They may be angels, or they may be from the believing jinn, or they may be from... So, we must remember this conclusion: the adhan is part of the prayer, and it is obligatory. Just as it is not permissible for us to pray and leave the obligations that we were commanded to perform in the prayer, so it is not befitting for us to pray without the adhan. Every prayer must have an adhan.

The questioner: Okay, if he prays the obligatory prayer, meaning he prays the sunnah... he achieves... does he have to go back and call the adhan?

The Shaykh : No, no, the adhan is for the obligatory prayer only.

The questioner: Yes, for the obligatory prayer.

The Shaykh : The adhan is for the obligatory prayer. I only want to dwell on this point: that the one praying, especially the women who pray at home, should not say, "By Allah, they called the adhan at the mosque and that is enough, so we are praying." I know that men pray in their homes without calling the adhan, and they limit themselves to the iqamah only. Women, a fortiori, do the same. This is wrong. Some people incorrectly report from some of the Salaf that "when he prayed as an imam in his house, he prayed without the adhan, or he intended to pray without the adhan, so it was said to him: 'Will you not call the adhan?' He said: 'The adhan of the neighborhood is sufficient for us,'" meaning the adhan of the mosque in the neighborhood is sufficient for us instead of us calling the adhan in our house. This is not correct. Rather, the correct view is that every person who prays the obligatory prayer must have the adhan called for him, just as it is necessary for the iqamah to be called for him for this obligatory prayer. Therefore, before the takbir for the prayer, the adhan is necessary and the iqamah is necessary. This is a general ruling that does not apply to men to the exclusion of women.