Islamic Fiqh > Prayer > Adhan and iqama: the call to prayer > Adhan: conditions, special cases and prayer upon the Prophet
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Updated on 24 September 2026 at 7:46 PM
This second part completes the chapter on the adhan and the iqama. It opens with the ruling of the vizier Ibn Hubayra on the adhan given during the night, then examines the muezzin's intention, the language of the call, its pronunciation, the order of its formulas and their continuity, before turning to the adhan for missed prayers, the adhan for two combined prayers, and the payment of the muezzin.
The vizier Ibn Hubayra (may Allah have mercy on him) said: what I deem is that this is not disliked, on the basis of the well-known authentic hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him):
Bilal gives the adhan during the night, so do not let that prevent you from taking your suhur.Well-known authentic hadith, cited by Ibn Hubayra
Had it been otherwise, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) would not have approved Bilal in absolute terms, without any indication of what could ground such a dislike (al-Ifsah 1/132, 133; al-Bahr al-Ra'iq 1/277; Sharh Fath al-Qadir 1/253; al-Majmu' 4/143, 144; al-Mughni 1/514, 517; al-Dhakhira 2/69, 70; al-Sharh al-Saghir 1/169, 170).
The Malikis and the Hanbalis hold that the intention is a condition for the validity of the adhan, on the basis of the saying of the Prophet (peace be upon him):
Deeds are only according to intentions.Reported by al-Bukhari (1)
Thus, if a person begins pronouncing the takbir with the intention of remembering Allah, and it then occurs to him, after what he has said, to give the adhan, he starts the adhan from its beginning and does not build upon what he has already said.
As for the Shafi'is, the intention is not a condition according to the sounder view; rather it is recommended. They do however require the absence of any deflecting purpose: if he only intends to teach someone else, his call is not taken into account.
As for the Hanafis, the intention is not a condition for the validity of the adhan, although it is a condition for being rewarded (al-Ashbah wa-l-Naza'ir of Ibn Nujaym, (11); al-Hattab 1/424; Nihayat al-Muhtaj 1/394; Manar al-Sabil 1/79).
The Hanafis and the Hanbalis require that the adhan be given in the Arabic language: no other language avails, and it is not valid to give it in any other language, even if it is known that it is an adhan. It is stated in Nur al-Idah that the adhan in Persian is not valid, even if it is known that it is an adhan, according to the apparent view (Hashiyat al-Tahawi 'ala Maraqi al-Falah 1/131; Nur al-Idah 1/39; al-Mabsut 1/37; Ibn Abidin 1/485; Ma'ani al-Athar 1/365).
Al-Sarakhsi reports that al-Hasan transmitted from Abu Hanifa that if the adhan is given in Persian while the people know that it is an adhan, it is valid; if they do not know this, it is not valid, because the purpose is notification, and that purpose is not achieved by it.
The imam al-Kasani (may Allah have mercy on him) adds: if someone gives the adhan in Persian, it is said that he falls under this disagreement; and it is also said: it is not permitted by consensus, because notification is not achieved by it; and even if notification were achieved, it would still not be permitted, and Allah knows best (Bada'i' al-Sana'i' 1/113).
Al-Babarti (may Allah have mercy on him) comments on the statement: "in the adhan, mutual recognition is taken into account". The following was stated in answer to the objection: the recitation of the Quran in prayer, being a pillar, carries greater stakes than the adhan, which is only a sunna; yet the adhan is not valid other than in Arabic: how could the recitation of the Quran be valid?
The answer lies in the fact that we do not concede that the adhan is absolutely invalid: mutual recognition is taken into account in it. Al-Hasan thus transmitted from Abu Hanifa that if the adhan is given in Persian and the people know that it is an adhan, it is valid; if they do not know, it is not, because the intended purpose, namely notification, is not achieved; and this is how he mentioned it in al-Asrar (al-Inaya 1/465; Hashiyat Ibn Abidin 1/485).
Al-Mardawi states: the adhan is not legislated in other than Arabic, except for oneself in case of incapacity (al-Insaf 1/413; Ma'ani al-Athar 1/365).
As for the Shafi'is, the imam al-Mawardi (may Allah have mercy on him) said: if the adhan is given in Persian for a congregational prayer, it is not valid, whether the person masters Arabic or not, because someone else may master it; if the call is for himself and he does not master Arabic, it does not avail him, like the invocations of the prayer; if he cannot master it, it avails him, and he must learn it (al-Hawi al-Kabir 2/58).
Al-Nawawi comments: these words of al-Mawardi, that the muezzin of the congregation is not availed by the adhan in Persian even if he does not master Arabic, are understood to apply when there is someone in the congregation who masters Arabic; otherwise it is valid, as he indicated in his commentary (al-Majmu' 3/136).
The adhan is invalidated if the meaning is altered by a pronunciation error, such as lengthening the hamza in "Allah" or in "Akbar", or its letter ba. If the meaning is not changed, the error is merely disliked (makruh) (Hashiyat Ibn Abidin 1/387, 388; Tabyin al-Haqa'iq 1/90; Sharh Fath al-Qadir 1/370; al-Tahawi's commentary 1/133; al-Sharh al-Saghir 1/169; I'anat al-Talibin 1/240; Hawashi al-Shirwani 1/478; Sharh Muntaha al-Iradat 1/138; Matalib Uli al-Nuha 1/296; al-Mughni 1/543; al-Ifsah 1/137).
The Malikis, the Shafi'is and the Hanbalis require that the adhan be ordered: the muezzin pronounces the words of the call in the very order and succession reported in the sunna, without advancing or delaying any word or sentence over another.
They gave the following reasons: the purpose of the adhan, which is notification, is spoiled by the absence of order, so that it would no longer be known that it is an adhan; the call was legislated in the first place in an ordered form, and the Prophet (peace be upon him) taught it to Abu Mahdhura in order; breaking the order compromises the intended notification, and the adhan is an act of remembrance whose formulation must be respected. If the order is broken, the adhan is resumed from its beginning.
The Shafi'is, for their part, permit building upon the ordered portion of the call: if the muezzin pronounces the second half of the adhan and then the first, the second half is invalid and the first is valid, because it occurred in its proper place; he may therefore build upon it and then pronounce the second half, although it is better to resume the adhan from the beginning, so that the formulas follow one another without interruption. If he has omitted some words, he pronounces the omitted word and then what follows it; a complete resumption remains preferable (Hashiyat al-Dasuqi 1/192; al-Hattab 1/425; al-Majmu' 4/181; Mughni al-Muhtaj 1/137; al-Mughni 1/535; Manar al-Sabil 1/79; Kashshaf al-Qina' 1/241).
As for the Hanafis, the order is a sunna: if the muezzin advances one sentence over another, he repeats the one he advanced, without being required to restart the whole adhan from its beginning (Ma'ani al-Athar 1/469).
Continuity between the words of the adhan is commanded: if the muezzin pauses briefly, his call is not invalidated.
The following is cited in support of the first view, established in the two Sahihs, from Abdallah ibn Amr ibn al-As (may Allah be pleased with him):
When the sun was eclipsed in the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), a call was made: the prayer is being gathered.Reported by al-Bukhari (998) and Muslim (910)
According to the well-known position of the Malikis, it is disliked to give the adhan for missed prayers without the iqama: for missed prayers, the iqama is made and not the adhan, on the basis of the saying of the Prophet (peace be upon him):
Whoever oversleeps a prayer or forgets it must pray it as soon as he remembers it.Words of the Prophet (peace be upon him)
He did not order that the adhan be given for it. In the hadith of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, the Prophet (peace be upon him), held back on the day of the trench and prevented from performing the dhuhr, the asr, the maghrib and the isha prayers, performed them with an iqama for each prayer, without giving the adhan.
They add: the adhan is an invitation to prayer and an announcement of its obligation; its sunna is the regular congregation, and all of this is absent in the case of missed prayers; the adhan is moreover a sign of the time, which lapses once the time has passed; were the call given for the missed prayer, it would be confused with the prayer of the present time; and since it is not the sunna to give the call from the pulpits, where it is done as is done for the iqama, this indicates that the adhan is not its sunna in any respect (al-Ishraf 'ala Nukt al-Masa'il al-Khilaf 1/234, 236, no. 154).
The Hanafis, the Shafi'is according to the relied-upon view, and the Hanbalis hold that whoever has missed a prayer should give the adhan and the iqama for it, based on what Muslim reports from Abu Qatada al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him): the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) turned off the road, laid his head down and said: "Watch over our prayers for us". The first to wake was the Messenger of Allah, with the sun already on his back. He said: we rose in alarm. Then he said: "Mount".
We mounted and pressed on until the sun had risen; he then dismounted and called for a water-skin that was with me and contained some water, said the narrator. He performed from it an ablution less than a full one, and some water remained in it. Then he said to Abu Qatada: "Keep your water-skin safe, for there will be news about it". Bilal then gave the adhan, the Messenger of Allah prayed two rak'as, then he performed the dawn (fajr) prayer, acting as he used to do every day (Reported by Muslim 681).
When the missed prayers are numerous, it is preferable according to the Hanafis to give the adhan and the iqama for each prayer; if he gives the adhan for the first and the iqama for the second, there is no harm in it: this is also the Hanbali madhhab and the relied-upon Shafi'i view. Ibn Qudama said: if the missed prayers are numerous, he gives the adhan and the iqama for the first only, then the iqama for the one after it; if he does not give the adhan, there is no harm (Tabyin al-Haqa'iq 1/92; Mawahib al-Jalil 1/423; al-Majmu' 4/139; al-Mughni 1/526; al-Kafi 1/102; al-Insaf 1/423; Fath al-Bari 2/84).
When two prayers are combined within the time of the first of them, as with the one who combines the asr with the dhuhr at the time of the dhuhr on the day of Arafah, he gives the adhan for the first prayer and the iqama, then he gives the iqama for the second: this is the view of the Hanafis, the Shafi'is and the Hanbalis, based on what Muslim reports from Jabir ibn Abdallah (may Allah be pleased with him):
The Prophet (peace be upon him) prayed the dhuhr and the asr at Arafah with one adhan and two iqamas.Reported by Muslim (1218)
According to the Hanbalis, the two situations are equal: if they wish, they give the adhan and the iqama; if they wish, they pray without adhan or iqama. It is reported from Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him):
He entered a mosque in which the people had already prayed; he ordered a man to give the adhan and the iqama, and then prayed with them in congregation.According to al-Albani in Tammam al-Minna (1/155), al-Bukhari reported it as suspended and al-Bayhaqi connected it with an authentic chain
Urwa said: when you arrive at a mosque where people have prayed with adhan and iqama, their adhan and their iqama suffice for whoever comes after them. Ibn Qudama (may Allah have mercy on him) adds: when he gives the adhan, it is recommended to conceal it and not to announce it aloud, lest the people be deceived by an adhan out of place.
The Hanafis, for their part, gave details: if a mosque has known regular worshippers and others have prayed in it with adhan and iqama, it is not disliked for its regular worshippers to repeat the adhan and the iqama when they pray; if it is the regular worshippers, or some of them, who have prayed with adhan and iqama, it is disliked for others, as well as for the remaining regular worshippers, to repeat the adhan and the iqama when they pray; if the mosque has no known regular worshippers, as with a mosque on a road, repeating the adhan and the iqama in it is not disliked (Bada'i' al-Sana'i' 1/481; Mawahib al-Jalil 1/468; al-Majmu' 4/140; al-Mughni 1/529).
The scholars differ on taking payment for the adhan and the iqama: is it permitted or not? Two positions are reported.
The early Hanafis, namely Abu Hanifa, Abu Yusuf and Muhammad, the Shafi'is according to one saying, the Hanbalis according to the madhhab, as well as the Zahiris, hold that it is not permitted to take payment for the adhan, on the basis of the hadith of Uthman ibn Abi al-'As (may Allah be pleased with him): I said: Messenger of Allah, appoint me imam of my people. He said:
You are their imam; take the weakest of them as your model, and appoint as muezzin one who takes no payment for his call.Authentic hadith: reported by Abu Dawud (631), al-Tirmidhi (209), al-Nasa'i (672), Ibn Majah (714) and Ahmad (4/21)
Had taking payment for the adhan been permitted, he would not have forbidden it; and the adhan is an act of devotion (qurba) valid only when performed by a Muslim, like the imamate: one cannot therefore be hired for it.
The Hanafis state the underlying principle: whatever it is permitted to hire a non-Muslim for, it is permitted to hire a Muslim for, and what is not so is not; thus, for every act of obedience reserved to the Muslim, hiring for its performance is void.
The Malikis, the Shafi'is according to the sounder view, Ahmad in one narration, and the later Hanafis, which is also the position adopted for the fatwa, hold that it is permitted to take payment for the adhan: it is a known work from which one may earn a livelihood, like other works; whatever one may volunteer to do on behalf of others allows payment, such as the building of mosques; and the supreme imam takes his provision from the public treasury, his deputation being better than the deputizing of muezzins.
It makes no difference whether the payment comes from the public treasury, as Umar did, or from private individuals, according to the well-known position of the Malikis; Ibn Habib, however, forbade that it come from private individuals for the adhan.
Al-Qurtubi (may Allah have mercy on him) reports: our scholars cited the hadith of Abu Mahdhura in support of the permissibility of payment, but this calls for examination; it is reported by al-Nasa'i (632), Ibn Majah (708) and Ahmad (15417). Here is the text according to the wording of Ibn Majah:
I went out with a group of people; we came to a point on the road, and the muezzin of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) gave the adhan near the Messenger of Allah. We heard the muezzin's voice while we were walking with arrogance, and we began shouting in imitation of him, mocking him. The Messenger of Allah heard us and sent men who seated us before him. He said: "Which of you is the one whose raised voice I heard?" They all pointed at me, and they told the truth. He released them all and kept me, then said to me: "Get up and give the adhan." I got up, although nothing was more hateful to me than the Messenger of Allah and than what he was ordering me to do.
I stood before the Messenger of Allah, who taught me the adhan himself, saying: "Say: Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar, ash-hadu an la ilaha illa Allah, ash-hadu an la ilaha illa Allah, ash-hadu anna Muhammadan rasul Allah, ash-hadu anna Muhammadan rasul Allah." Then he said to me: "Raise your voice: ash-hadu an la ilaha illa Allah, ash-hadu an la ilaha illa Allah, ash-hadu anna Muhammadan rasul Allah, ash-hadu anna Muhammadan rasul Allah, hayya 'ala as-salah, hayya 'ala as-salah, hayya 'ala al-falah, hayya 'ala al-falah, Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar, la ilaha illa Allah."
When I had finished the adhan, he called me and gave me a purse containing some silver. Then he placed his hand on my forelock, passed it over my face, then over my chest, then over my belly, until the hand of the Messenger of Allah reached my navel. The Messenger of Allah then said: "May Allah bless you and bestow His blessing upon you." I said: Messenger of Allah, order me to give the adhan in Mecca. He said: "Yes, I order you to do so." Everything I had felt as dislike then vanished and turned into love for the Messenger of Allah. I went to Attab ibn Asid, the governor of the Messenger of Allah in Mecca, and I gave the adhan with him by the command of the Messenger of Allah.Authentic hadith: reported by Ibn Majah (708), al-Nasa'i (632) and Ahmad (15417); wording of Ibn Majah, cited by al-Qurtubi (Tafsir al-Qurtubi 6/231, 232)
There is no disagreement among the scholars that it is permitted to earn a livelihood from it: the Muslims need it, and there may be no volunteer for it; if no provision is paid, the function comes to a standstill. The imam then provides for it from the fay' funds (properties that have reverted to the Muslims), for he is charged with the public interests; it is like the provisions of judges and fighters. If a volunteer exists, no one else is paid, since there is no need (Tabyin al-Haqa'iq 5/124, 125; Mukhtasar Ikhtilaf al-Ulama 4/100; Sharh Mushkil al-Athar 15/263, 265; Mukhtasar al-Waqiya 2/119; al-Jawhara al-Nayyira 3/360; Hashiyat Ibn Abidin 6/55, 56; Tanqih al-Fatawa al-Hamidiyya 5/420, 421; al-Ishraf 'ala Nukt al-Masa'il al-Khilaf 1/236, no. 155; Sharh Mukhtasar Khalil 1/236 and 2/296; Minh al-Jalil 2/214; Bidayat al-Mujtahid 1/79; al-Hawi al-Kabir 2/59, 60; Rawdat al-Talibin 4/18; al-Majmu' 3/133, 134; al-Bayan 2/89; Mughni al-Muhtaj 3/399; al-Najm al-Wahhaj 5/353; Nihayat al-Muhtaj 5/332; Mukhtasar Ikhtilaf al-Ulama of al-Bayhaqi 4/168; al-Ifsah 2/32; al-Mughni 1/249; al-Kafi 2/304; Manar al-Sabil 2/217, 218).