When does the mu'adhdhin say (Prayer is better than sleep)? Is it in the first adhan or the second?

The Shaykh : What is established in the authentic Sunnah, from the hadith of Abu Mazhura and the hadith of Ibn 'Umar, is that the mu'adhdhin's saying was in the first adhan. There is no authentic hadith stating that this phrase belongs in the second adhan. In addition to what we mentioned, that the established hadiths explicitly state that this phrase belongs in the first adhan, this means that the phrase is only appropriate for the first adhan. The purpose of saying "Prayer" is to wake up the sleepers. In the second adhan, when the mu'adhdhin says "Prayer is better than sleep," most people are already awake and not sleeping. So, placing this phrase in the second adhan is not only contrary to the Sunnah, but it also contradicts its purpose, which is waking up the sleepers, as mentioned in some authentic hadiths . [The mu'adhdhin] was a blind man, and he would not call the adhan until he was told, "It is morning, it is morning..." The second adhan is called, and the first adhan is called. Why? So that the sleeper gets up and the one who is eating suhur finishes his meal. So what is the benefit of saying "Prayer is better than sleep" when the sleepers have already woken up? This is, in reality, one of the things that contradict the Sunnah, and one wonders how this contradiction has persisted for these long years. It comes to mind that people, due to their negligence of the Sunnah, fall into other violations. We observe in Jordan that they call the adhan for the time, claiming that they say "Prayer is better than sleep" in it, but in reality, they are calling the adhan at the time of the first adhan, meaning they are calling for the Fajr prayer about half an hour before the dawn breaks. This is a problem we suffer from in Jordan. Another problem in Jordan, which Jordan has uniquely adopted without the rest of the Islamic world, is this innovation: unifying the adhan. The adhan is called from a mosque there, a higher mosque in the mountains of Jordan called Al-Ashtariyyah Mosque, and I do not know if this adhan is real or recorded. This adhan, which is broadcast from that mosque, is broadcast to all the mosques, and few mosques have a mu'adhdhin who calls the adhan in the mosque itself. This adhan is called before the time of Fajr, between twenty-five and thirty minutes early. My house is there on an open mountain, with its east and west sides exposed, by the grace of Allah. I see the sunrise and the dawn break with my own eyes, and I see the sunset with my own eyes. In Ramadan, we eat suhur, and their mu'adhdhin calls for Fajr. We see the darkness in the east together, and we break our fast, and the sun has set, and we are full, and then they call the adhan. It is as if they preserved the first adhan, which contained "Prayer is better than sleep," in both time and wording, and then over time, the matter became obscured, and they thought that this was the time of the second adhan for Fajr, due to a very strange confusion. Then we added to our sorrow the fact that this error exists in many countries. And you all, or most of you, or some of you, hear ofThe Shaykh : Taqi al-Din al-Hilali, who was a teacher at the Islamic University. He is Moroccan from Meknes, and he wrote a treatise proving that they call the Fajr prayer there a third of an hour before the time, or perhaps twenty-five minutes, based on my current estimate. Then another one of our Salafi brothers in Kuwait also has a printed treatise confirming this bitter truth, stating that they call the adhan there before Fajr by approximately this estimate. A few months ago, a young man or a student of knowledge from Ta'if contacted me. He told me, "We have a Shaykh, whose name I think is Abdullah al-Sa'di, or that is his kunya. He says to his companions and brothers that they call the Fajr adhan before the time by approximately this time and estimate. It seems that this calamity is a general one.The Shaykh : It seems that this calamity is a general one.

The questioner : It seems that they rely on the calendar.

The Shaykh : This calamity, this is the reason, because they do not observe the Shari'ah times now. In another matter, I verified it myself last Ramadan, or the one before that, when I performed 'Umrah. We stayed in Madinah with a brother of ours. When the time for iftar came, I went up to the upper floor and saw that the sun had set behind the mountain located there in Madinah, so I broke my fast. But they did not call the adhan in Madinah until ten minutes after the sun had set. Then I came here to this same house, went up to the top, and saw the sun. My joy was immense. The sun set from here, and the mu'adhdhin called the adhan from here. I saw this with my own eyes. Look at the difference between here and Madinah. I want to verify the Fajr adhan here. Are you with me in that? What is the way for us to go out to a prominent place where there are no artificial lights or obstructing buildings in front of us, so we can see the true dawn? Do they call the adhan based on astronomical calculation or based on visual observation? This is what I doubt.

The questioner : Even in Ramadan, there is a difference between... Mecca, and there is confusion. The difference is sometimes minutes.

The Shaykh : No problem. The difference must be between one town and another, especially if they are on the same latitude, but the difference should not be large.

The questioner : In Jeddah... in Mecca...

The Shaykh : These are problems that have no... Please, now the mu'adhdhin is calling the adhan.