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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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What is the authenticity of the addition of: (Prayer is better than sleep) in the first adhan of Fajr?

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The questioner : Praise be to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah.
It was reported from Bilal (may Allah be pleased with him) that when he said:
The prayer is better than sleep الصلاة خير من النوم
Sunan Ibn Majah 716Da'if (Darussalam)
, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him:
Make it in your adhan. اجعلها في أذانك
. This was noted in some books. I said: I mean in the first adhan of Fajr. So we want the evidence that explicitly stated this?

The Shaykh : Yes, the addition of
The prayer is better than sleep الصلاة خير من النوم
Sunan Ibn Majah 716Da'if (Darussalam)
is only established in the first adhan. There are hadiths regarding this, including the hadith of Abdullah ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both), who said: "In the first adhan during the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family): Prayer is better than sleep, prayer is better than sleep." The chain of this narration in "Sunan al-Nasa'i" is hasan (good), and it is sufficient for proof, and it becomes sahih (authentic) through other evidence; because it has a corroborating narration from the hadith of Abu Mahdhura, the mu'adhdhin (caller to prayer) of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in Makkah. When the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) taught him the adhan, he said to him:
When you call the adhan for the first adhan of Fajr prayer, say: Prayer is better than sleep, prayer is better than sleep. فإذا أذَّنت لصلاة الفجر الأذان الأول فقل : الصلاة خير من النوم ، الصلاة خير من النوم
Sunan ad-Daraqutni 3:55
. There is absolutely nothing that contradicts these two hadiths. Since that is the case, correct and sound reasoning supports what came in these two established hadiths. The hadith of Abu Mahdhura was narrated by a group of the imams of the Sunnah, foremost among them being Imam Ibn Khuzaymah in his "Sahih." I say: Correct and sound reasoning supports that this extra phrase in the adhan, which is:
The prayer is better than sleep الصلاة خير من النوم
Sunan Ibn Majah 716Da'if (Darussalam)
, is only appropriate for the first adhan and not for the other adhan of Fajr. This is because the purpose of this phrase is to wake up the sleeper, not to alert the one who is already awake. In the first adhan, people are usually— or most of them— sleeping. For this reason, it came in "Sahih al-Bukhari" and others, the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family):
Let not Bilal's adhan deceive you; for Bilal only calls the adhan at night; so that the one who is eating suhur may eat, and the one who is praying may pray. لا يغرَّنَّكم أذان بلال ؛ فإنما يؤذِّن بليل ؛ ليتسحَّر المتسحِّر وليصلِّيَ القائم
— or as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said.
Let not Bilal's adhan deceive you; for Bilal only calls the adhan at night. لا يغرَّنَّكم أذان بلال ؛ فإنما يؤذن بليل
; that is: before the adhan of Fajr. So Bilal, who used to call the adhan for Fajr— the first adhan— for most of his life; in this adhan, reasoning dictates that the mu'adhdhin should say in it:
As-salatu khairum minan-nawm, As-salatu khairum minan-nawm الصلاة خير من النوم ، الصلاة خير من النوم
Sunan Ibn Majah 716Da'if (Darussalam)
. And in some authentic narrations of this hadith, it came that he (peace be upon him) said to the one who heard Bilal's adhan:
so eat and drink (Suhur) till Ibn Um Maktum pronounces the Adhan. فكلوا واشربوا حتى يؤذِّن ابن أمِّ مكتوم
Sahih al-Bukhari 622, 623
. The narrator says: And Ibn Umm Maktum did not call the adhan until it was said to him: "You have entered the morning, you have entered the morning"; that is: you have entered the time of Fajr, so call the adhan; because he was a blind man. So in this adhan, there is no objection to saying:
The prayer is better than sleep الصلاة خير من النوم
Sunan Ibn Majah 716Da'if (Darussalam)
; because the people have become awake and are no longer sleeping.
Source www.al-albany.com

The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.

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