What are the rulings regarding the adhan and the iqamah?

The questioner : A mu'adhdhin who performs the iqamah for the prayer should be far from the microphone, specifically the mosque microphone near the minbar. He should be far away. We told him, "Performing the iqamah from your place is better than advancing forward, as we heard you explain in some issues?"

The Shaykh : Yes, no, I do not say that. What I say is that a distinction must be made regarding the location between the place of residence and the place of the adhan. The place of residence is in the mosque, whether it is near or far. As for the place of the adhan, it must be on the roof of the mosque, even with the use of loudspeakers today. In fact, we discussed this issue in detail during the trip we took to the UAE, and we mentioned that, unfortunately, people today follow every caller and do not think about the Shari'ah rulings at all. The adhan that should be announced is not just for the sake of the sound, but for the sound and the person; the prominence of the person on the roof of the mosque is an Islamic ritual, and this prominence has been eliminated. Why? By the newly occurring means today, which are loudspeakers. So many mu'adhdhins, we see them in some mosques entering under the minbar and no one sees them; but where is their voice? It reaches kilometers. There is no harm in using the amplification device, because this is among the objectives of the Shari'ah, and we detailed the speech there in detail. But what is permissible in order to achieve a recommended matter, which is conveying the sound to the farthest possible place, at the expense of wasting a sunnah, which is the prominence of the mu'adhdhin in a visible place in the mosque, is a sunnah. This sunnah is established in the hadith regarding the legitimacy of the adhan. This is known because when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was in the early days of Islam, there was no adhan; some of them would call out to each other, as some mu'adhdhins do today after the adhan, calling out, "Prayer, O worshippers, prayer." This is not permissible after the adhan, because this was before the legitimacy of the adhan. So the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) held a conference and consulted with the Companions in the well-known story, where each one would come with a suggestion. One said with a horn, the second said with fire, the third said with a gong, and so on until that Companion, Abdullah ibn Zayd al-Ansari, saw the situation in a dream. He was walking on one of the roads of Madinah and saw a man with a gong in his hand. He said, "O Abdullah, will you sell me this gong?" He said, "I will strike it at the times of prayer." He said, "Shall I not direct you to something better?" Now, I will pause for a moment. What does "better" mean? It means "more excellent." We return to the hadith Does this indicate that the less preferred is permissible? No, this is not an Arabic rule at all, because what does it lead us to? "Shall I not direct you to something better than a gong?" This means that the gong is better, but this is more excellent. This is a mistake. The important thing is that he said, "Yes." So there was a broken wall, meaning a collapsed wall with a remainder, as seen in ruins, meaning that when a wall is demolished, its foundation remains so that a person naturally sees that there was a wall here. So he saw this man in the dream; that man rose on this wall and put his hands in his ears and gave the adhan, the well-known adhan today, without addition at the beginning or the end: "Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest," and its end is "There is no god but Allah." And he descended from this broken wall to the ordinary ground and established the prayer. So this became a sunnah afterwards. So Bilal used to ascend on the roof of a house there in Madinah and give the adhan; as for the iqamah, it is in the mosque. So now a double error occurs, first due to the silence of the scholars in explaining the Shari'ah truths and the Prophetic sunnah, and second, people, by nature, if the scholars are silent, where do they learn from? This hadith, upon which the practice of the Muslims has proceeded, the mu'adhdhin appears with his person and his voice. And so it was from the sunnah that the mu'adhdhin have a loud voice. So at the end of the previous story, when the man related the dream to the Messenger of Allah, he said: "It is a true vision, so teach it to Bilal, for he has a louder voice than you." If the loudness and strength of the voice is a desirable matter in the Shari'ah, and these amplification means are found, there is no objection, but not at the expense of wasting the sunnah, which is the prominence of the mu'adhdhin's person in the adhan. And the scholars say that a benefit of the prominence, or one of the benefits of the prominence, is that a person who cannot hear due to the noise of the crowd, etc., may be, God forbid, deaf in his ear; but when he sees the mu'adhdhin doing this, he is certainly giving the adhan. This sunnah was lost due to the existence of what? The loud voice. Brother, if we do not use the loudspeaker, we have no sin; but if we use it, it is better, as we mentioned regarding the legitimacy that the mu'adhdhin have a loud voice; but not at the expense of wasting the sunnah of the prominence of the mu'adhdhin in the adhan. We come to the opposite: the mu'aqqim gives the iqamah in the mosque in the same place where the adhan is given, but this place is not the place of the mu'adhdhin. Here, pay attention to where his place is? On the roof of the mosque. So the ruling of the adhan and the iqamah became mixed. When we gave the adhan, we lost the prominence of the mu'adhdhin with his person and body; when we gave the iqamah, what did we do? We broadcast the iqamah like the adhan. This is contrary to the sunnah. The iqamah is only for the people of the mosque. And from here we arrive at a warning about another error: the broadcast of the prayer of the worshipper, especially on Friday. From this broadcast, where does the recitation of the Qur'an reach? Wherever the radio reaches, it reaches the cafes, the passersby, those who play cards, and those who gamble, and so on. It is not permissible to take the sound of the iqamah, and consequently the sound of the imam while he is praying, outside the mosque, outside the four walls. This is all contrary to the sunnah. And as you see, it is either excess or deficiency, whereas there is no excess and no deficiency. This, unfortunately, has become rarer than red sulfur. So we ask Allah (Mighty and Majestic) to teach us what benefits us, to increase us in knowledge, and to guide us to act upon what we have learned. And Glory is to You, O Allah, and praise, I bear witness that there is no god but You, I seek Your forgiveness and I repent to You. And the righteous have eaten your food, and the angels have sent blessings upon you, and the fasting have broken their fast with you. But we did not understand that this is an 'aqiqah, what is it?

The questioner : Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, has bestowed upon us a boy.

The Shaykh : A pure boy, if Allah wills.

The questioner : And we named him Abd al-Rahman.

The Shaykh : And what a good name.

The questioner : But we did not fulfill our condition. The young men who overpowered you, it was not us who overpowered you.

The Shaykh : You did not overpower us. You left us, if Allah wills.