And prayers and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon his family and all his Companions: He said, may Allah have mercy on him: "Chapter on the Virtue of the Adhan"

The reader: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions:
He said, may Allah have mercy on him: "Chapter on the Virtue of the Adhan:
It was narrated from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

Were people to know the blessing of pronouncing Adhan and the standing in the first row, they would even draw lots to secure these privileges. And were they to realize the reward of performing Salat early, they would race for it; and were they to know the merits of Salat after nightfall ('Isha') and the dawn (Fajr) Salat, they would come to them even if they had to crawl.

لو يعلم الناس ما في النداء والصف الأول ثم لم يجدوا إلا أن يستهموا عليه لاستهموا عليه، ولو يعلمون ما في التهجير لاستبقوا إليه، ولو يعلمون ما في العَتَمَة والصبح لأتوهما ولو حبوا

Riyad as-Salihin 1033

Agreed upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim”.

The Shaykh : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful:
The author, may Allah have mercy on him, said in his book *Riyad al-Saliheen*: "Chapter on the Adhan": meaning its virtue and what has been reported regarding it. The adhan is the announcement of the prayer, meaning the entry of its time if it is among those that are brought forward, or its performance if it is among those that are delayed. This is the adhan, meaning a person calls out to inform the people that the time has entered for the Maghrib prayer, the Fajr prayer, the 'Asr prayer, and the Zuhr prayer, unless they cool down with it, so the adhan is at the time of its performance. Likewise, in the adhan for 'Isha' if they wait for it to become dark and delay it, the adhan is also delayed; otherwise, it is called at the entry of the time, based on the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family): .
The prescribed adhan is the one called for the five prayers. It was made obligatory in the second year of the Hijrah, after the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) migrated to Madinah, the adhan was legislated. The Companions differed when they consulted on how to announce the entry of the prayer time. Some said: "We will light a fire, a great fire, so that people know the time has entered." Others said: "Rather, we will strike a gong, the gong that resembles a bell, which the Christians use to call to their prayers." And others said: "Rather, we will blow a horn, as the Jews do." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) disliked all of this. : with this known adhan. When it was the time of 'Uthman ibn 'Affan (may Allah be pleased with him), and the people increased, he established a first adhan for Friday before the second adhan, which is when the imam is present. So on Friday there were two adhans: a first adhan and a second adhan. And in Ramadan, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered Bilal to call the adhan at the end of the night when the time for suhur approaches. He ordered him to call the adhan and said: : So we have a first adhan for Fajr, but it is not for the prayer itself, rather it is for the announcement that the time for suhur has arrived. And Friday has a first adhan from the practice of 'Uthman ibn 'Affan (may Allah be pleased with him), who is one of the Rightly Guided Caliphs whom we were ordered to follow their practice. Some of the pretentious people who claim to be Salafi Sunnis said: "We do not accept the first adhan for Friday, because it is an innovation that was not in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family)." This statement from them is a criticism of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), a criticism of the Rightly Guided Caliphs, and a criticism of the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them). So these poor people have reached this point without knowing it. As for it being a criticism of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), it is because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said: , and by the consensus of the Muslims that 'Uthman is one of the Rightly Guided Caliphs (may Allah be pleased with him). And as for it being a criticism of the Rightly Guided Caliphs, it is a criticism of 'Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him), who is one of the Rightly Guided Caliphs, and whoever criticizes one of them criticizes all of them, just as whoever denies one messenger denies all the messengers.
And as for it being a criticism of the Companions, it is because the Companions did not disapprove of 'Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him), even though if he had made a mistake, they would have disapproved of him, as they disapproved of him completing the prayer in Mina during Hajj. But in the first adhan for Friday, they did not disapprove of him. So are these pretentious people who go against the scholars more knowledgeable about the Shari'ah of Allah and the objectives of the Shari'ah than the Companions?!
But the truth of the Messenger of Allah: , and refuge is sought in Allah, and it is a criticism of them. So the first adhan for Friday is a legislated adhan by the indication of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), by the practice of the Commander of the Faithful 'Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him), and by the consensus of the Companions, the silent consensus. And no one has an excuse, and Allah has cut off the tongue of whoever objects to our Caliphs, the Rightly Guided Caliphs of this Ummah, and to the Companions.
Someone might say: Why did the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) not legislate it, while Friday existed in his time? The answer is: The reason is that the people in the time of 'Uthman increased and Madinah expanded, and they needed an adhan to alert them that would be before the final adhan when the imam arrives. So it was wise to call the adhan.
And 'Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) built upon its foundation. Here is the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) ordering Bilal to call the adhan at the end of the night, not because the prayer time had entered, the Fajr prayer, but to wake the sleeper and return the one who is awake. So it is a legislated objective. And there is no issue with the legitimacy of the first adhan for Friday.
So the first adhan for Friday is legislated by the practice of the Rightly Guided Caliphs, and the indication of the Master of the Messengers Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and the consensus of the Companions who witnessed this. As for the adhan at the end of the night, it is legislated by the practice of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) in Ramadan to wake the one who is awake, to wake the sleeper, and to return the one who is awake. But is it legislated other than in Ramadan?
We say: Perhaps by analogy to the action of 'Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) to wake the people, we see that there is no harm in it. And here is a second issue: "The prayer is better than sleep." Some of the later scholars claimed that it is said in the first adhan before Fajr. And they made a great mistake, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered Bilal to say "The prayer is better than sleep" in the adhan for Fajr. He said: , and it is known that the adhan for the prayer does not occur except after the entry of its time, based on the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): .
And it was named the first adhan in consideration of the iqamah, because the iqamah is the second adhan, as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: , and it came in *Sahih Muslim*, may Allah have mercy on him, from the hadith of 'A'ishah (may Allah be pleased with her) who said: meaning: he stood up, meaning the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), : And this is explicit that the first adhan for Fajr is what occurs after the entry of the time. And as for the adhan at the end of the night, it is not an adhan for Fajr, but it is an adhan for the sleepers to rise and for the awake to return and have suhur if that is in the time of fasting. And the adhan is among the best deeds, and it is better than leading the prayer, meaning that the rank of the mu'adhdhin in reward is better than the rank of the imam, because the mu'adhdhin announces the exaltation of Allah, the oneness of Allah, and the testimony to the Messenger regarding the message. And he also calls the people to the prayer and to success five times a day and night or more, and the imam does not achieve that.
This is why the rank of the adhan in the Shari'ah is higher than the rank of leading the prayer. If someone were to ask: If that is the case, why did not the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) call the adhan, nor did the Rightly Guided Caliphs? The scholars answered this: "Because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) and the Rightly Guided Caliphs were occupied with the interests of the people", for they were caliphs and leaders who managed the Muslim community. The adhan in the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was not like the adhan in our time. Now, if a person wants to call the adhan, he only has to look at the clock and know whether the time has entered or not. But in the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), they would observe: they would watch the sun and follow the shadow until they knew that the sun had passed its zenith, and then they would continue to watch it until they knew that it had set, then they would watch the twilight, and then they would watch the dawn. So there was difficulty in it, a great difficulty. Therefore, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and the Rightly Guided Caliphs did not take on the adhan, not because its virtue is less than leading the prayer, but because they were occupied with what they were doing, which kept them from the adhan. And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) explained its virtue: : Glory be to Allah! Do you know the meaning of this? It means if people knew what virtue and reward there is in the call to prayer, they would draw lots to see who would be the one to call the adhan. But people today, unfortunately, push it away. "Call the adhan, so-and-so," "Call the adhan, so-and-so." One says: "By Allah, my voice is not good. Perhaps my voice will be heard by those far away, and they will think I am calling the adhan." But Satan discourages them from doing good. And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) says: : meaning they would draw lots to see who would be the one to call the adhan, they would cast lots. You should strive to be the one who calls the adhan if you are on a trip. But it is known that a trip has a leader, whether it is a journey or a picnic, there must be a leader. So if the leader appoints a person, saying "You, so-and-so, are the one to call the adhan," then no one else should step forward and call the adhan, because he has become the regular mu'adhdhin. Likewise, if he says to one of them, "You are the imam," then he becomes the imam, and no one should take precedence over him, based on the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family): , and may Allah guide everyone to what is good and right.