হাদীস শরীফ

AZAAN

Engr. Syed Mahbub Alam
Researcher,Fanar
DOHA-QATAR

Azaan (أَذَان) is the Islamic call to prayer, recited by the Muazzins.
Azaan An incredible medium for the proclamation of Tawheed of Almighty Allah and Risaalat of Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam, the sound of which constantly echoes around the globe.
Azaan literally means ‘announcement’, and in the Shari’ah it means the announcement made in specific words at the time of salat. It was introduced in the first year of the Hijrah at Madinah.Azaan is prayed loudly, often with loudspeaker so that faithful knows it and come to mosque for prayer. Actual prayer start about 5 mts to 10 mts after this.Azaan is called out by the Muazzins from a minaret of a mosque five times a day summoning Muslims for fard (mandatory) salah (prayers). There is a second call known as iqama that summons Muslims to line up for the beginning of the prayers.
Scholar’s state that the azaan was not written or said by Muhammad(pbuh) but by one of his Sahabah (his companions), a freed Ethiopian slave by the name of Bilal ibn Ribah. However, Muhammad(pbuh) did choose azaan as the Islamic call to prayer.
During the Friday prayer (Salat Al Jummah), there are two azaans; prayer in place of the bells, horns, et cetera used by other religions. The first is to call the people to the mosque; the second is said before the Imam begins the khutbah (sermon). Just before the prayers start, someone recites the iqama as in all prayers.
Text of Azaan:
Recital Arabic Transliteration Translation
4x الله اكبر Allah u Akbar God is The Greatest
2x اشهد ان لا اله الا الله Ash-hadu allā ilāha illallāh I bear witness that there is no lord except God
2x اشهد ان محمدا رسول الله Ash-hadu anna Muhammadan rasūlullāh I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God
2x حي على الصلاة Hayya ‘alas-salāt Make haste towards prayer
2x حي على الفلاح Hayya ‘alal-falāh Make haste towards welfare [success]
2x الصلاة خير من النوم* Aṣ-ṣalātu khayru min an-naūm* Prayer is better than sleep *
2x الله اكبر Allah u akbar God is greatest
1x لا اله الا الله Lā ilāha illallāh There is no lord except God
* The line “Prayer is better than sleep” is used only for the first prayers of the day at dawn (fajr salat).
Amazing miracle:
Azaan is an amazing miracle. Have a look at a map of the world.
And you will find Indonesia on the eastern side of the earth. The major cities of Indonesia are Java, Sumatra , Borneo and Saibil.As soon as dawn breaks on the eastern side of Saibil, at approximately 5:30 am local time, Fajar Azaan begins. Thousands of Mu’azzins in eastern Indonesia commence proclaiming the Tawheed (oneness) of the Almighty, Omnipotent and Omniscient Allah and Risaalat (Universal Apostleship) of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam.
The process then continues and advances towards the Western Islands of Indonesia. The time difference between the eastern and western islands of Indonesia is one and a half hours. Hence, one and a half hours after the Azaan has been completed in Saibil, it echoes in Jakarta on Java island. Sumatra then follows suit and before this auspicious process of calling Azaan ends in Indonesia, it has already begun in Malaysia. Burma is next in line, and within an hour of its commencement in Jakarta, it reaches Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. No sooner the calling of Azaan ends in Bangladesh, it has already prevailed in western India, from Calcutta to Srinagar. It then advances towards Bombay and the environment of entire India resounds with this august proclamation.
Srinagar and Sialkot (a north city in Pakistan ) have the same timing for Azaan. The time difference between Sialkot , Quetta , and Karachi is forty minutes, and within this time, Fajar Azaan is heard throughout Pakistan . Before it ends there, it has already begun in Afghanistan and Muscat .

The time difference between Muscat and Baghdad is one hour. Azaan resounds during this one hour in the environments of Hijaaz-e-Muqaddas (Holycities of Makkah and Madinah), Yemen , United Arab Emirates , Qatar, Kuwait and Iraq .
The time difference between Baghdad and Alexandria in Egypt is again one hour. Azaan continues to resound in Syria, Egypt, Somalia and Sudan during this hour. The time difference between eastern and western Turkey is one and a half hours, and during this Alexandria and Tripoli (capital of Libya ) are located at one hour’s difference. The process of calling Azaan thus continues throughout the whole of Africa.Therefore, the proclamation of the Tawheed” and “Risaalat” that had begun in Indonesia reaches the Eastern Shore of the Atlantic Ocean after nine and half hours.
Prior to the Azaan reaching the shores of the Atlantic , the process of “Zohar Azaan” has already started in east Indonesia , and before it reaches Dhaka, Asr Azaan” has started. This has hardly reached Jakarta one and half hours later, the time of “Maghrib” becomes due, and no sooner has “Maghrib” time reached Sumatra , the time for calling “Isha Aazaan” has commenced in Saibil! When the Muazzins of Indonesia are calling out “Fajar Azaan”, the African Muazzins are calling the Azaan for Isha.

If we were to ponder over this phenomenon seriously and studiously, we would conclude the amazing fact that: ‘There is not a single moment when thousands if not hundreds of thousands of Muâazzins around the world are not proclaiming the Oneness of Almighty Allaah and the Prophethood of the noble Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam on the face of this earth!’Subhaan Allah !!! Praise be to Allah. Insha-Allah, this universal and continuous calling of the Azaan shall not cease until the Day of Judgement, and we should all make du`a for the same, AMEEN.