The Great Significance, Virtues, And Rewards of Adhan

Congregational prayer is the major part of every religion. Whether it’s Muslims in their mosques, Jews in their Synagogues or Christians in their Churches, all of them have one thing in common, i.e. they worship God collectively. However, they have different modes of calling parishioners to the Holy places. Having seen Christians ringing bells and Jews blowing horns for collecting people to prayers, Muslims also quoted such methods to the Holy Prophet ﷺ, but one day Abdullah ibn Zaid (R.A) came to Rasulullah ﷺ and said:

“O Messenger ﷺ of Allah! I had a beautiful dream last night.” “What was the dream you saw”, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) asked Zaid.

Zaid answered, “I’ve seen that a man wearing green garment taught me the words of the Adhan and advised me to call people to prayer with these words.”

Hazrat Muhammad ﷺ approved it without giving a second thought, as He had recognized that the dream was true, besides same kind of dream was also quoted by Umar ibn Khattab (R.A). He ﷺ then directed Bilal ibn Rabah (R.A), who was a black slave, to have the honor to become the first ever Muezzin (Caller to Salah) in the Muslim history. Bilal (R.A) had a beautiful and loud voice, which reached far off houses in the town of Madina at that time.

Anas ibn Malik said:

“When the number of Muslims increased they discussed the question as to how to know the time for the prayer by some familiar means. Some suggested that a fire be lit (at the time of the prayer) and others put forward the proposal to ring the bell. Bilal was ordered to pronounce the wording of Adhan twice and of the Iqama once only.” (Bukhari)

After the idea of Adhan was known, the exact format was decided, which includes repetition of every line twice in it, while Iqamah (Second Call), which is given after Muslims have gathered in Masjid in order to start Namaz, consists of no recurrence of wording.

Now let us talk about some of the essential qualities of Adhan:

1. First of all, it’s an invitation towards meeting with Allah SWT, i.e. Salah. That means it serves a great purpose of achieving the highest state of morality and uprightness of heart and soul because of its direct link with Namaz.
2. It is more useful and effective way of encouraging others towards veneration of the Almighty as compared to ringing of bells and blowing horns which only cause noise. On the other hand, Adhan sounds highly meaningful as it contains language of glorifying the Lord and His Messenger ﷺ.
3. Saying “Allah is the Greatest” is to testify the Ultimate Power of the Creator of the Universe, Who controls every phenomenon happening in this world and heavens.
4. Second phrase “There is none worthy of worship except Allah” fulfills the very first criterion of Muslim faith, i.e. to believe in One God`s Supremacy and comparing no one to Him.
5. After paying the Most Deserved Homage to Allah SWT, the Adhan follows up with bearing witness that Hazrat Muhammad ﷺ is the Messenger of the Exalted One, which is also the necessary constituent of Islamic conviction.
6. The expressions “Come to Salah” and “Come towards Success” are meant to inform the Muslims about Namaz as being the cause of one`s accomplishment in this world and hereafter. This is so because Adhan is the call towards Namaz, which in turn is the way of direct communication with Allah Almighty resulting in forgiveness of wrongdoings and attainment of many of God`s blessings.
7. In the end, the name of Almighty Lord is again highly praised by repeating His Greatness and testifying that there is no one else praiseworthy as Him.
8. Only for the morning prayer, the phrase “Namaz is better than sleeping” is added which signifies the fact that waking up for the sake of meeting with God has the greatest blessings and is definitely superior to being in an ignorant state of slumber.
9. Adhan is a constant reminder for common people about Allah`s remembrance and a way of knowing that He is always there for us, and there is nobody else we could ask from.

Benefits of Adhan

 1.   There is a great rank of Muezzin (the one who invites to Namaz) in the Religion of Peace. Abdullah bin `Abdur-Rahman reported: Abu Sa`id Al-Khudri (R.A) said to me:

“I see that you like living among your sheep in wilderness. So whenever you are with your sheep or in wilderness and you want to call Adhan, you should raise your voice because whoever hears the Adhan, whether a human or jinn or any other creature, will testify for you on the Day of Resurrection.” Abu Sa`id added: “I heard this from the Messenger ﷺ of Allah.” (Bukhari)

It means that the Caller of Salah will benefit from the greatest bounties of Allah SWT on the Day of Resurrection, as everyone who hears him saying Adhan will testify in his favor on that day.

2.    Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah (sallallaahu ’alayhi wa sallam) said:

“When Adhan for Salat is pronounced, the devil takes to his heels and breaks wind with noise so as not to hear the call. When the Adhan is finished, he returns. When the Iqamah is announced, he turns his back, and after it is finished, he returns again to distract the attention of one and makes him remember things which he does not recall in his mind before the Salat, and says `Remember this, and this,’ and thus causes one to forget how many Rak`at he performed.” (Bukhari and Muslim)

This Hadith shows that Adhan is not any simple announcement; rather it is that powerful in its effect that Shaitaan (Satan) cannot bear hearing it as it contains the message about righteousness and leads one towards spirituality of heart and soul.

3.   Abdullah bin `Amr bin Al-`As (May Allah be pleased with them) reported:

“I heard the Messenger ﷺ of Allah saying, “When you hear the Adhan, repeat what the Mu’adhdhin says. Then ask Allah to exalt my mention because everyone who does so will receive in return ten rewards from Allah. Then beseech Allah to grant me Al-Wasilah, which is a high rank in Jannah, fitting for only one of Allah’s slaves; and I hope that I will be that man. If anyone asks Al-Wasilah for me, it becomes incumbent upon me to intercede for him.” (Muslim)

The above mentioned saying of the Holy Prophet ﷺ tells us about the huge advantage of duplicating the words said by Muezzin. It not only makes one able to get Allah`s blessings, but also leads towards achieving the Greatest Assistance one could ever get, i.e. the support of Rasulullah ﷺ in the hereafter.

So, to conclude, one can say that Islamic way of calling people towards prayers is not merely a method of collecting them at one place for venerating God, but also serves as a means of reminding Muslims about their utmost religious duty of carrying out Namaz. It also describes the entire Islamic faith, pays Homage to Allah SWT, and last but not the least portrays Salah as the best source of success.