What is the ruling of Islam regarding the unification of the adhan?

The questioner : What is the ruling of Islam regarding the unification of the adhan...?

The Shaykh : First, this statement we hear often, "What is the opinion of Islam," is incorrect. Islam is the religion of Allah, which He revealed to reform His servants on earth; it is not an opinion. Opinions are issued by us, human beings. The correct way to ask is: "What is the ruling of Islam regarding such and such?" I say this so that the absent may know, because this is a common error we hear on the radio and television: "The opinion of Islam is such and such." This is wrong. It should be "The ruling of Islam is such and such." As we said earlier, I can state my own opinion, for example, that television is forbidden, or recording is forbidden, or similar matters, or that it is permissible. But I say, "This is my opinion," in the detail you have heard. Now, answering the question after correcting it: The adhan is one of the symbols of Islam, so it is obligatory to spread it and broadcast it. It is not permissible to suppress it or limit its scope such that the adhan for the 'Asr prayer is not called except in one mosque to be broadcast in the other mosques. This is a suspension of the remembrance of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in a way that has no precedent in the entire Islamic world, nor is there a parallel in any country of Islam except in this country. In reality, we advise the authorities to reconsider this matter and return to what the Muslims were doing and are still doing in all other lands, where every mosque has its own adhan, just as every mosque has its own iqamah and its own imam. I have said on some occasions that I fear, and I fear greatly, that a time will come for people, due to one of two reasons or the combination of both—ignorance or neglect of acting upon beneficial knowledge, or both—that a time will come when the imams are unified and the prayer of one imam in one mosque is broadcast, and the masses of Muslims in their mosques and homes follow him. This may seem strange at first glance, but who would have believed that a time would come where it is imposed on the mu'adhdhins that they not call the adhan in their mosques, but instead turn on the radio to transmit the broadcast from, for example, a specific mosque to all the mosques? It is absolutely impossible to unify the adhan, because you find now in this capital that some of the adhan is unified, especially in modern buildings and new mosques being built there; every mosque has its own adhan. So why do we not follow the path of the righteous Salaf? Some people may imagine that allowing the adhan to be called in every mosque represents division and disagreement. We say, no, on the contrary, it is a declaration of this symbol, as it means, as came in the authentic hadith, and some of it is being practically implemented today. Perhaps you remember that the Companions, in the early migration of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to Madinah, would call out to one another when the time for prayer arrived, calling one another to prayer, because there was no adhan there. So the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) gathered with his Companions one day, and they consulted and discussed the idea of adopting a means to inform the Muslims of the entry of the time for prayer so that they could gather. Many suggestions were put forward. One said, "What if we adopted a great fire that we light to serve as a declaration of the entry of the time for prayer?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . Another said, "Then let us strike the trumpet." He said: . A third said, "Let us strike the bell." He said: . The conference dispersed without adopting a specific opinion that night. One of them, Abdullah ibn Zayd (may Allah be pleased with him), saw in a dream that he was walking on one of the roads of Madinah. He met a man who had a bell in his hand, and he said to him, "O Abdullah, will you sell me this bell?" He said, "Why?" He said, "So that we strike it at the times of prayer." He said, "Shall I not direct you to something better for you than that?" And he stood on a broken wall. "A broken wall" means the base of a collapsed wall, as is observed, where a remnant of the wall remains, the size of two or three shari' or more or less. He stood on the broken wall, placed his hands on his ears, and said, "Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar" four times. This is the adhan known today, and we are preserving it, but sometimes we add to it before and after, and this is all contrary to the Sunnah. Then he descended from the broken wall to the ground and established the prayer. When morning came, he went to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and related the dream to him. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him: . Now you find that many of these Sunnahs that descended from the sky—this was an angel who was seen in the dream—and therefore the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to the dreamer: . Many of the Sunnahs have been lost, for example, the distinction between the adhan and the iqamah. Today, the mu'adhdhin calls the adhan in the courtyard of the mosque, and the one who calls the iqamah calls it in the courtyard of the mosque, whereas the Shari'ah came with the distinction between them. The mu'adhdhin used to put his hands in his ears. Today we see some of them doing that and some not. Of those who do it, some complete it and some do not. You find some calling the adhan like this. Why? Because they have become distant from the Sunnah. These are merely traditions, and they do not realize that it is a Sunnah, and that the Sunnah is not with one hand, but with both hands together. Likewise, they have lost the Sunnah of turning to the right and to the left, thinking there is no need for it. They have also lost the informing of the person who calls the adhan from a high place, saying there is no need for all these Sunnahs, because they took matters by their intellects, not by following the Sunnah of their Prophet. They said the purpose of the adhan is to inform, and informing with a loudspeaker is achieved more than without a loudspeaker. We say this is correct, but it is necessary to preserve, along with the loudspeaker, the other Sunnahs that are associated with the legitimacy of the adhan in the same story I mentioned earlier from the dream, which indicates the legitimacy of using a loudspeaker, because he said: . So utilizing the modern means today that help to convey the voice to a far and distant place is what is derived from his (peace and blessings be upon him) saying: . But why do we not ascend to the roof of the mosque and to the minaret? On the contrary, unfortunately, minarets have been adopted today that are like skyscrapers, spending thousands upon thousands of dinars in vain, whereas it is possible to dispense with these costs in the form of a minaret that indicates to passersby that this is a mosque, and the mu'adhdhin should ascend to a high place where the passerby can see him, as some of them may have weak hearing or may be deaf. Then look at the difference between the mu'adhdhin ascending to a high place in the mosque and raising the word "Allahu Akbar" over all the people, and the one who sits in a small room or under the minbar, as if he is afraid, as if he has returned to the first time when the Companions did not dare to call the adhan for fear of their polytheist enemies. All of this came about due to negligence of the Shari'ah. And among it is that the mu'adhdhin calls the adhan in his mosque; every mu'adhdhin calls the adhan in his mosque, and it is not permissible to suspend this symbol, because it is contrary to what all Muslims have followed in all these long centuries.
Please proceed.