Is it obligatory to respond to the mu'adhdhin if he is reciting the Qur'an, and is the dhikr made up?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Is it obligatory to respond to the mu'adhdhin?
The Shaykh : What?
The questioner : Is it obligatory to respond to the mu'adhdhin? If it is obligatory, does that imply that if a person is reciting the Qur'an, he must interrupt the recitation?
The Shaykh : Responding to the mu'adhdhin is not obligatory according to the stronger opinion held by the majority of scholars, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to Malik ibn Huwayris and those with him, "When the prayer time arrives, let one of you call the adhan," and he did not say, "Let the other respond to it." Therefore, the correct view is that it is not obligatory. But does one respond to him while praying? The correct view is that he does not respond, because that distracts from the prayer. It is not valid to counter this by citing the report that the Prophet (peace be upon him) instructed the one overcome by waswas (whispers) or the one in whose heart Satan casts waswas to say, "I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Shaytan," nor by citing that he approved of Mu'awiyah ibn al-Hakam saying, "Praise be to Allah," when he sneezed. That is because those are single phrases that do not have a significant impact. However, if one were to follow the mu'adhdhin, it would involve many words and distract him from the prayer. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah rejected this issue and said: "The one praying says every dhikr for which a cause is found in the prayer, whether it is the adhan, sneezing, being affected by waswas in prayer, or otherwise." But the correct view is that what is distracting is not said. As for recitation, there is no doubt that he interrupts it in order to respond to the mu'adhdhin, because recitation is not missed, whereas responding to the mu'adhdhin is missed. The scholars excluded from this the case of being in the restroom, where one does not respond. But does he make up what was missed or not? The correct view is to distinguish: if a long time has passed, he does not make it up; if the time is close, he should make it up. Yes, we have taken three [questions].
The Shaykh : What?
The questioner : Is it obligatory to respond to the mu'adhdhin? If it is obligatory, does that imply that if a person is reciting the Qur'an, he must interrupt the recitation?
The Shaykh : Responding to the mu'adhdhin is not obligatory according to the stronger opinion held by the majority of scholars, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to Malik ibn Huwayris and those with him, "When the prayer time arrives, let one of you call the adhan," and he did not say, "Let the other respond to it." Therefore, the correct view is that it is not obligatory. But does one respond to him while praying? The correct view is that he does not respond, because that distracts from the prayer. It is not valid to counter this by citing the report that the Prophet (peace be upon him) instructed the one overcome by waswas (whispers) or the one in whose heart Satan casts waswas to say, "I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Shaytan," nor by citing that he approved of Mu'awiyah ibn al-Hakam saying, "Praise be to Allah," when he sneezed. That is because those are single phrases that do not have a significant impact. However, if one were to follow the mu'adhdhin, it would involve many words and distract him from the prayer. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah rejected this issue and said: "The one praying says every dhikr for which a cause is found in the prayer, whether it is the adhan, sneezing, being affected by waswas in prayer, or otherwise." But the correct view is that what is distracting is not said. As for recitation, there is no doubt that he interrupts it in order to respond to the mu'adhdhin, because recitation is not missed, whereas responding to the mu'adhdhin is missed. The scholars excluded from this the case of being in the restroom, where one does not respond. But does he make up what was missed or not? The correct view is to distinguish: if a long time has passed, he does not make it up; if the time is close, he should make it up. Yes, we have taken three [questions].