We request clarification on the innovation of unifying the adhan.

The questioner : We will become stronger with this, meaning we will gain strength through this, because I have answered that this is a principle that may also lead to the Friday sermon, and may also lead to abandoning the congregation to listen to the Friday sermon in the homes, because, as I said, since the cause is that we hear the sermon and the preaching and guidance, likewise this can be used as an excuse and the sermon becomes in the homes. This means this is a principle of evil; unifying the adhan is a principle of evil that may be followed by many evils. Like some of the innovations that were small at first, then they grew and became large.
I mean, these innovations that they raised, that there were two adhans for the Fajr prayer, they made it with one adhan. This is also similar to this excuse that they use. So we want your opinion?

The Shaykh : My opinion, which we have discussed repeatedly, is that the adhan is one of the symbols of Islam, and that it is not permissible to reduce its dissemination among people, and that this unification is contrary to the path of the believers. The Lord of the worlds says: So the Muslims in all these centuries have proceeded on the basis that every mosque has an adhan. So when an innovator who is astray from the Shari'ah of Allah comes and makes one adhan and then imposes the broadcasting of this adhan on the other mosques, it is as if he is establishing the recorded adhan in place of the adhan of the one obligated to perform it. So all the mu'adhdhins of the mosques must each perform their duty, and among that is the adhan. Just as all the imams of the mosques must perform the function of the imamate. So if the result of unifying the adhan is that the adhans in the other mosques are suspended, this is, as we said, suspending one of the symbols of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). In addition to that, the adhan of one mosque differs from the adhan of another mosque in every way in this country whose people have been afflicted with the unification of the adhan.
For example, the adhan on the mountain, which is the highest mountain in this country and is known as Jabal al-Ashrafiyyah, the Fajr adhan there is not like the adhan of the mosque that is in the middle of the town, because the one who is on top of that mountain sees the true dawn appear many minutes before those who are in the valley of the mountain. So imposing the unified adhan is contrary to the Shari'ah timing. And if you are amazed, be amazed at these enthusiasts and defenders of the unified adhan, that when they print the calendar that they print for the Ministry of Awqaf, they write at the bottom of every page "taking into account the difference in timing due to the difference of countries." And this notice is actually good and in accordance with the Shari'ah, but they are the first to contradict this timing and this Shari'ah or this notice and this Shari'ah.
That is because when they imposed one adhan on the people, it means that they did not take into account this difference in timing from one place to another. And we have experience in this country, and as the land dealers say, the land differs by the span of a hand, so likewise the times differ.
We were once invited a few years ago to iftar in a village that is now incorporated into Amman, its name is: So we sat on a veranda like this one, but that one was southern, whereas this veranda, as you see, is northern, and the one sitting in it sees the setting of the sun as we see it here. For the first time, I heard the adhan coincide with the setting of the sun there. But here, we see the sun set and then ten minutes later they announce the adhan.

The questioner : They apply it to nature, meaning.

The Shaykh : Yes, why? Because there the mountains are lower than al-Na'ur, yes, so the setting of the sun is delayed compared to here. So the ten minutes, which is the difference between the setting of the sun and the unified adhan, those ten minutes are gone there. But I saw something more amazing than this in the same town. We also went another year or another day, I don't know.
We entered the mosque for the Maghrib prayer and we heard the adhan, the Maghrib adhan, and the sun was in front of us, it had not set, it had not set yet. So what is the meaning of unifying the adhan on the one hand, and the notice in these timings that are published in the calendar, taking into account the difference in what? The times. It is empty talk. Besides, I saw a mosque here called Masjid Suhayb, at the seventh roundabout. Someone told me that he also hears, sometimes in some seasons of winter, and he is the imam of the mosque, he hears the adhan broadcast on the radio and the sun has not set yet.
The student: Allahu Akbar

The Shaykh : So this unified adhan, in addition to being a suspension of this symbol and a reduction of its dissemination, it misleads the people. We see here the appearance of the dawn and the sun at the same time. They call the Fajr adhan, if you noticed today, when they establish the prayer here in the mosque, at that time the prayer becomes permissible for us here. At that time, the dawn has already appeared. Before that, they had called the adhan half an hour before the time of Fajr had entered.

The questioner : Pray without the adhan.

The Shaykh : From whom?

The questioner : Those who pray, meaning they pray without the adhan...

The Shaykh : No. Those who broadcast the adhan, it is not without the adhan, before, before the time.

The questioner : It means they did not call the adhan for the time, meaning.

The Shaykh : The problem is that they entered the prayer before its time, that is one thing. The other is that they write in the calendar the rising of the sun, they date it, for example, at six and a quarter, six and a half. I have observed this repeatedly and again. The sun here, and we are on the mountain, do not forget the difference in the town, the sun rises a quarter of an hour after the timing of the calendar. So if someone wakes up late on this mountain, he looks at the calendar and it tells him the sun has risen, so he does not pray because the time has passed, but the sun has not risen. And what is this? And this is while we are in the high place. So when does the sun rise for the one who is below in the valley? No doubt it is delayed more and more.
And I finally learned, or confirmed in the true sense, that this affliction encompasses all Islamic countries without exception, and the reason is that these calendars are based on astronomical timing that took into account sea level and that's it, meaning assume the whole Islamic world is on the coast of the sea, so it gave this timing and did not take into account at all the difference from one country to another.
I used to say to those who were with us when we travel for Hajj and 'Umrah, you must have noticed with me during the journey, we pass a mountain on our right, a very high mountain, and then this range starts to descend, descend. So if a person descends in a flat area of land and the sun sets for him because the mountain is high, and it seems to him that he should pray Maghrib, implementing his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): He breaks his fast and what? And he prays, he walks a little and then the sun is rising. Why? Because this mountain that he had descended at, and then it fell and went away because the range, all of it, is descending, is going down. So the one who was in that second place, and there is between the two men perhaps five minutes, ten minutes by car, it is not permissible for him to pray at the time that this first person prayed.

The questioner : Is his prayer valid, meaning?

The Shaykh : It would not have been valid.

The questioner : It is valid.

The Shaykh : Yes, so that one who is five minutes, ten minutes away, it is not permissible for him to pray because the sun is still rising for him, it has not set yet. And so it is with the whole world, yes.