Adhan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (February 2010)

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve the article or discuss these issues on the talk page. It needs additional references or sources for verification. Tagged since May 2008. It needs to be expanded. Tagged since June 2009.

Part of a series on
Islam
Beliefs
Allah · Oneness of God Muhammad · Prophets of Islam
Practices
Profession of Faith · Prayer Fasting · Charity · Pilgrimage
History & Leaders
Timeline of Muslim history Ahl al-Bayt · Sahaba Rashidun Caliphs · Shi'a Imams
Texts & Laws
Qur'an · Sunnah · Hadith Fiqh · Sharia Kalam · Tasawwuf (Sufism)
Major branches
Sunni · Shi'a
Culture & Society
Academics · Animals · Art Calendar · Children Demographics · Festivals Mosques · Philosophy Politics · Science · Women
Islam and other religions
Christianity · Judaism Hinduism · Sikhism · Jainism
See also
Criticism of Islam · Islamophobia Glossary of Islamic terms
Islam Portal
v • d • e

The adhān (also Athaan: IPA: [ʔæˈðæːn], Azan/Ezan) (أَذَان) is the Islamic call to prayer, recited by the muezzin. The root of the word is ʼḏn, meaning "to permit", and another derivative of this word is uḏun, meaning "ear."

Adhan is called out by the muezzin in the mosque, sometimes from a minaret, five times a day summoning Muslims for mandatory (fard) prayers (salah). There is a second call known as iqama (set up) that summons Muslims to line up for the beginning of the prayers. The main purpose behind the loud pronouncement of adhan five times a day in every mosque is to make available to everyone an easily intelligible summary of Islamic belief. It is intended to bring to the mind of every believer and non-believer the substance of Islamic beliefs, or its spiritual ideology. Loudspeakers are sometimes installed on minarets for the purpose.

The adhan sums up the teachings of Islam: there is no God but Allah; Muhammad is God's Messenger; salvation is found through obedience to the Will of God, of which prayer is an important expression.

[edit] Text

[edit] Sunni

* Followers of the Maliki madh'hab say this line twice instead of four times.

** The line "Prayer is better than sleep" is used only for the first prayers of the day at dawn (fajr Prayer; Salat al-fajr).

[edit] Shi'a

* According to Shi'a scholars, Ashhadu ana Alian waliullah ("I bear witness that Ali is the vice regent of God") is not a part of adhan and iqamah but it is recommended (Mustahabb) to say that twice after third part of the adhan which is "Ash-hadu anna Muhammadar-rasūl ullāh".^[2][3][4]

[edit] Views

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2008)

[edit] Sunni view

Sunnis state that the adhan was not written or said by the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, but by one of his Sahabah (his companions). Umar, a prominent sahabah of Muhammad, had a vision in his dream, in which the call for prayers was revealed to him by God. He later related this to his companions. Meanwhile, this news reached Muhammad, and he liked it and confirmed it. Because of his stunning voice Muhammad choose a freed Habeshan slave by the name of Bilal ibn Ribah to give the call for prayers. Muhammad preferred the call better than the use of bells (as by the Christians) and horns (as by the Jews).

During the Friday prayer (Salat Al Jumu'ah), there are two adhans; 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 amongst the praying people recites the iqama as in all prayers. The basis for this is that at the time of the Caliph Umar he ordered 2 adhans to be made, the first of which was to be made in the marketplace to inform the people that the Friday prayer was soon to begin, and the second adhan would be the regular one held in the mosque. Not all Sunnis prefer two adhans as the need for warning the people of the impending time for prayer is no longer essential now that the times for prayers are well known.

[edit] Shi'a view

Shi'a sources state that it is Muhammad who, according to God's command, ordered the adhan as a means of calling Muslims to prayer. Shi'a Islam teaches that no one else contributed, or had any authority to contribute, towards the composition of the adhan.

Other Shi'a sources state that Bilal ibn Ribah was, in fact, the first person to recite the adhan publicly out loud in front of the Muslim congregation.

[edit] Dua

[edit] During adhan

While listening to the adhan, Muslims repeat the same words silently, except when the muezzin says ḥayya 'alas-salāh or ḥayya 'alal-falāḥ they silently say lā hawla wa lā quwata illā billāh (there is no strength or power except from God).

[edit] Post-adhan

The following dua (supplication) is optionally read by Muslims after the adhan is recited:

[edit] Form

Each phrase is followed by a longer pause and is repeated one or more times according to fixed rules. During the first statement each phrase is limited in tonal range, less melismatic, and shorter. Upon repetition the phrase is longer, ornamented with melismas, and may possess a tonal range of over an octave. The adhan's form is characterised by contrast and contains twelve melodic passages which move from one to another tonal center of one maqam a fourth or fifth apart. The tempo is mostly slow; it may be faster and with less melismas for the sunset prayer. During festivals, it may be performed antiphonally as a duet.^[5]

[edit] Turkey

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2008)

As an extension of the reforms brought about by the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, the Turkish government at the time, encouraged by Atatürk, tried to supply secularism to Turkey. as he declared the spech in opening seromony of TBMM 1.11. 1937 ""bizim devlet idaresindeki ana programımız, chp programıdır. bunun kapsadığı prensipler, idarede ve siyasette bizi aydınlatıcı ana hatlardır. fakat bu prensipleri, gökten indiği sanılan kitapların dogmalarıyla asla bir tutmamalıdır. biz, ilhamlarımızı gökten ve gaipten değil, doğrudan doğruya hayattan almış bulunuyoruz.” ^[6] The program involved implementing a Turkish adhan program as part of its goals, as opposed to the conventional Arabic call to prayer.^[7]

It was Bid‘ah (Arabic: بدعة‎) is any type of innovation in Islam. Though innovations in worldly matters, such as science, medicine and technology are acceptable and encouraged, Bid`ah within the religion is often seen as a sin or innuendo, and the prophet of Islam, Muhammad ( sav) , stated as such: “Whosoever originates an innovation in this matter of ours [i.e., Islam] that is not a part of it, will have it rejected.” ^[8][9] In addition, the Qur'an states:

..This day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My favor upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion.

—^[10]

Similar statements are found in other verses of the Qur'an and other Hadith as well.

this is the what they are replaced instead of Adhan

Tanrı uludur
Şüphesiz bilirim, bildiririm
Tanrı'dan başka yoktur tapacak.
Şüphesiz bilirim, bildiririm;
Tanrı'nın elçisidir Muhammed.
Haydin namaza, haydin felaha,
Namaz uykudan hayırlıdır.

Following the conclusion of said debates, the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı) released an official mandate on July 18, 1932, announcing the decision to all the mosques across Turkey, and the practice was continued for a period of 18 years.

On July 16, 1950, the practice was terminated after a new government under Adnan Menderes was sworn in, who repealed the ban on the Arabic adhan , and declared Arabic as the liturgical language.

[edit] Turkish National Anthem

Adhan in the eighth verse of İstiklâl Marşı, the Turkish national anthem

Oh glorious God, the sole wish of my pain-stricken heart is that,
No heathen's hand should ever touch the bosom of my sacred Temples.
These adhans, whose shahadahs are the foundations of my religion,
May their noble sound last loud and wide over my eternal homeland.

[edit] See also

• Angelus
• Sahih Muslim of Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, translation into English by Abd-al-Hamid Siddiqui

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Aẓān.

• Various Adhaan from around the world
• Azan / Adhan MP3 Downloads
• Azan / Adhan MP3 Downloads
• Meaning of the Adhan
• Online Adhan Web Page : http://www.adhanonline.com (Eng)