Islamic Fiqh > Prayer > Adhan and iqama: the call to prayer > The adhan: legitimacy, form and iqama
Contents
Updated on 24 September 2026 at 7:46 PM
This chapter gathers the chapters of the fiqh encyclopedia devoted to the adhan and the iqama: their legitimacy through the Quran, the Sunnah and consensus, the beginning of their legislation in Medina, their legal status according to the schools, their exact forms, the prayer upon the Prophet after the call, and their conditions. The opinions of the four madhhabs are reported with their classical references and the numbers of the hadith collections.
The fuqaha agree that the adhan and the iqama are legislated by the Book, the Sunnah and consensus, and that they are among the distinctive features of Islam and its manifest rites.
In the Book, the adhan is mentioned in two places. The first is the saying of Allah:
"O you who believe! When the call is made for prayer on the day of Friday, hasten to the remembrance of Allah and leave off trade: that is better for you, if you only knew."
Surah al-Jumuah, 9
The second is the saying of Allah:
"And when the call to prayer is made, they take it as mockery and sport, because they are a people who do not understand."
Surah al-Maidah, 58
Ibn al-Jawzi reports two opinions on the cause of the revelation of the second verse. According to the first, reported by Ibn al-Sa'ib, when the caller of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) would call to prayer and the Muslims would rise, the Jews would say in mockery: "They stood, no, they did not stand; they prayed, no, they did not pray", and the verse was revealed.
According to the second, when the disbelievers heard the adhan they envied the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and the Muslims, and said: "O Muhammad, you have introduced something never heard of among past nations: if you claim prophethood, you have contradicted by this adhan the prophets before you. How ugly this sound is, and how repugnant this matter!" The verse was revealed, as some exegetes mention.
Al-Suddi adds: a man among the Christians of Medina would say, whenever he heard the caller say "I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah": "May the liar be burned." One night his servant entered with fire while he and his household slept; a spark fell, set the house ablaze, and he and his family perished in it. The call (nida) here means the adhan, and their taking it in mockery means their laughing and winking: they are a people who do not understand what they would gain by answering the call to prayer, nor what they lose by mocking it (Zad al-Masir, 2/385-386).
Among the Sunnah is the hadith of Malik ibn al-Huwayrith (may Allah be pleased with him):
We came to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) as young men of close age and stayed twenty nights with him. Thinking we missed our families, he asked us whom we had left behind, and we told him. He was most kind and merciful. He said: Return to your families, teach them, instruct them, pray as you have seen me pray; when the time of prayer comes, let one of you call the adhan for you, then let the oldest of you lead the prayer.Reported by al-Bukhari (5662) and Muslim (674)
As for consensus, Imam al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) said: the adhan and the iqama are legislated for the five prayers by authentic texts and by consensus, and neither the adhan nor the iqama is legislated for anything else, without any disagreement, whether it be a voluntary prayer, a funeral prayer or a supererogatory prayer, whether congregational prayer is prescribed for it, like the two Eids, the two eclipses and the prayer for rain, or not, like Duha (al-Majmu, 3/83).
Among the evidence for this is what Muslim reports from Jabir ibn Samura:
I prayed the two Eids with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) more than once and twice, without adhan or iqama.Reported by Muslim (887)
The call to prayer is a deed of immense merit, as indicated by the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him):
If people knew what there is in the call and in the first row, and could find no other way than to draw lots, they would draw lots.Reported by al-Bukhari (615) and Muslim (437)
Al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) explains: this applies when a mosque has no permanent muezzin, or has muezzins who dispute over who should begin, or the mosque is small and the difference of their voices causes confusion: lots are then drawn and one man calls, the one whom the lot falls to. If, however, there is a permanent muezzin and another disputes with him, the permanent one is given precedence. If a group of regular muezzins has a mosque large enough for each to call from a different spot, each calls alone; if the mosque is small and the difference of their voices causes no disturbance, they call together (al-Majmu, 4/133).
According to the correct view, the adhan was legislated in Medina. Ibn Rajab (may Allah have mercy on him) said: the adhan was only legislated after the hijrah of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) to Medina, and all the authentic hadiths indicate this (Fath al-Bari by Ibn Rajab, 3/397).
Hadiths are reported indicating that it was legislated in Mecca, but the hafiz Ibn Hajar (may Allah have mercy on him) said: the truth is that nothing of these hadiths is authentic. Ibn al-Mundhir stated definitively that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) prayed without an adhan from the time prayer was made obligatory in Mecca until he migrated to Medina, and until the consultation settled on what is reported in the hadith of Abdallah ibn Omar, then in the hadith of Abdallah ibn Zayd.
As for the year in which it was legislated, scholars differ. The hafiz said: the preponderant view is that it was the first year; it is also said the second (Fath al-Bari, 2/93-94). The hadiths reported on the matter agree with the first view: Muslim reports from Abdallah ibn Omar that he said:
When the Muslims came to Medina they would gather and await the time of prayer, without a call being made for it. One day they spoke about it: some said: take a bell like the bell of the Christians; others said: rather a horn like the horn of the Jews. Omar said: why do you not send a man to call to prayer? The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: O Bilal, stand up and call to prayer.Reported by al-Bukhari (579) and Muslim (377)
Then came the dream of Abdallah ibn Zayd. He narrates: when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) ordered that a bell be made to be struck so as to gather the people for prayer, a man carrying a bell in his hand walked around me in my sleep. I said: O Abdallah, will you sell the bell? He said: what will you do with it? I said: we shall call to prayer with it. He said: shall I not direct you to something better? I said: yes. He said: you say:
He moved away from me a short distance, then said: you say, when establishing the prayer (the iqama):
He continues: when morning came I went to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and told him what I had seen. He said: It is a true dream, if Allah wills. Go with Bilal and convey to him what you saw, and let him call the adhan with it: his voice is more resonant than yours.
So I went with Bilal and began conveying the formula to him while he called. Omar ibn al-Khattab heard it while he was in his house; he came out dragging his garment and said: By Him Who sent you with the truth, O Messenger of Allah, I saw the very same. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: Praise be to Allah.
Authentic hadith: reported by Abu Dawud (499). Abu Dawud noted that this is the narration of al-Zuhri from Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib from Abdallah ibn Zayd; Ibn Ishaq, from al-Zuhri, gives four takbirs, while Ma'mar and Yunus, from al-Zuhri, give two, without doubling.
Al-Suhayli said: the wisdom of informing people of it through a tongue other than that of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) is to exalt his rank and elevate his mention through the tongue of another, which makes his command mightier and his status more august. The hafiz (Ibn Hajar) said: this is a fine and excellent remark, and from it is taken that the dream of Abdallah ibn Zayd alone was not sufficient (Fath al-Bari, 2/79).
The fuqaha differ on the ruling of the adhan: is it a confirmed sunnah or a communal obligation (fard kifayah)?
The Hanbalis in their madhhab, a view also held among the Shafi'is, some Hanafis and the Malikis according to one opinion, said to be the most widely known, hold the adhan to be a communal obligation upon the people of every town: if they abandon it they sin, and they are fought over it if they refuse to perform it; if one of them performs it, all the rest are relieved of it.
The Hanafis according to the correct view, the Malikis according to the most widely known view, the Shafi'is according to the most correct view and the Hanbalis according to one opinion, hold the adhan to be a confirmed sunnah whose abandonment is sinful.
According to both views, if people pray without an adhan their prayer is valid but they sin, for having contradicted the Sunnah and the command of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).
It is also said: the adhan is a communal obligation for Friday and a sunnah otherwise: this is the view of the Shafi'is and the Hanbalis, for the adhan is a call to congregation and the congregation is obligatory on Friday (al-Durr al-Mukhtar, 1/384; al-Hidaya, 1/41; al-Kafi, 1/37; Iqd al-Jawahir al-Thamina, 1/87; al-Ishraf ala nukt masail al-khilaf, 1/231-232, no. 151; al-Qawanin al-Fiqhiyya, 1/36; Sharh Mukhtasar Khalil, 1/228; al-Fawakih al-Dawani, 1/172; Sharh al-Zarqani, 1/277-278; Tahbir al-Mukhtasar, 1/238; al-Sharh al-Saghir, 1/166; al-Majmu, 4/124, 134; Kifayat al-Akhyar, 155; al-Mughni, 1/524; al-Insaf, 1/406; al-Ifsah, 1/129).
Imam al-Qurtubi (may Allah have mercy on him) said: the scholars differed on the obligation of the adhan and the iqama. As for Malik and his companions, the adhan is only obligatory with them in the mosques meant for congregations, where people gather; Malik stated this explicitly in his Muwatta. The later Malikis differed on two views: one holds it to be a confirmed sunnah, a communal obligation in the principal city (misr) and in the villages that share its status; others said it is a fard of a communal nature.
The companions of al-Shafi'i likewise differed. Al-Tabari reported from Malik that he said: if the people of a principal city deliberately abandon the adhan, they must repeat the prayer.
Abu Omar (Ibn Abd al-Barr) said: I know of no disagreement on the adhan's obligation in general upon the people of the principal city, for the adhan is the distinguishing mark that separates the abode of Islam from the abode of disbelief. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) would say when dispatching an expedition: If you hear the adhan, hold back and refrain; if you do not hear the adhan, attack, or he said: launch the raid. And in the Sahih of Muslim: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) would raid at daybreak; if he heard an adhan he held back, otherwise he raided.
Ata, Mujahid, al-Awza'i and Dawud said: the adhan is a fard, without saying it is communal, meaning it falls upon every individual.
Al-Tabari said: the adhan is a sunnah, not an obligation. He mentions from Ashhab from Malik that if a traveller deliberately abandons the adhan he must repeat the prayer. The Kufans disliked the traveller praying without adhan and iqama; they said: as for the resident of the principal city, it is recommended for him to call and make the iqama, and if he contents himself with the people's adhan and iqama it suffices him. Al-Thawri said: in travel the iqama takes the place of the adhan, though if you wish you may call and make the iqama. Ahmad ibn Hanbal said: the traveller calls the adhan, according to the hadith of Malik ibn al-Huwayrith.
Dawud (the Zahiri) said: the adhan is obligatory upon every traveller in particular, as is the iqama, because of the saying of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) to Malik ibn al-Huwayrith and his companion: When you two are travelling, call the adhan and make the iqama, and let the older of you two lead the prayer; al-Bukhari reported it, and this is the view of the Literalists (ahl al-zahir).
Ibn al-Mundhir said: it is established that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to Malik ibn al-Huwayrith and his cousin: When you two travel, call the adhan and make the iqama, and let the older of you two lead. The adhan and the iqama are therefore obligatory upon every group, in residence and in travel, for the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) commanded the adhan and his command signifies obligation.
Abu Omar said: al-Shafi'i, Abu Hanifa and their companions, al-Thawri, Ahmad, Ishaq, Abu Thawr and al-Tabari agreed that if the traveller leaves the adhan, deliberately or forgetfully, his prayer suffices him; likewise, according to them, if he leaves the iqama, though they regard the leaving of the iqama with even stronger disapproval.
Al-Shafi'i argued that the adhan is neither obligatory nor a pillar of the prayer by its being waived for the individual at the gatherings of Arafat and Muzdalifah; as for Malik's madhhab on the adhan in travel, it is the same as al-Shafi'i's (Tafsir al-Qurtubi, 6/225-226).
The shaykh of Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said: the correct view is that the adhan is a communal obligation: the people of a town or village have no right to abandon the adhan and the iqama; this is the most widely known position of the madhhab of Ahmad and others. Groups of scholars have called it a sunnah, and among these are those who say that if the people of a land agree to abandon it they are fought. The dispute with them is close to a verbal one, for many scholars use the term sunnah for what whose abandonment is legally blameworthy and punishable; the disagreement between this one and the one who makes it obligatory is therefore verbal, and it has many parallels.
As for whoever claims it is a sunnah with no sin upon those who abandon it and no punishment, this view is wrong: the adhan is the emblem of the abode of Islam; it is established in the Sahih that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) made attacking the people of a land conditional upon their abandoning it: he would pray Fajr then watch; if he heard a muezzin he did not raid, otherwise he raided. In the Sunan of Abu Dawud and al-Nasa'i, from Abu al-Darda, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said:
There is no group of three in a village or among desert dwellers without prayer being established among them, except that Satan has taken hold of them. So adhere to the congregation: the wolf devours only the straying sheep.Hasan hadith: reported by Abu Dawud (547)
Allah has said (Majmu al-Fatawa, 22/64-65):
"Satan has taken hold of them and made them forget the remembrance of Allah. They are the party of Satan; surely the party of Satan are the losers."
Surah al-Mujadalah, 19
The fuqaha agree that the adhan has come in several formulas reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), all of them legislated and permissible for the call; the scholars only differed over which is best.
Imam Abu Hanifa and the Hanbalis adopt the adhan of Bilal, the one appearing in the dream of Abdallah ibn Zayd, namely:
They say: adopting it is preferable, for Bilal constantly called with it in the presence of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), in travel and residence alike (Ma'ani al-Athar, 1/462; Fath al-Qadir, 1/211; al-Mughni, 1/508-509; al-Ifsah, 1/130).
The Malikis and the Shafi'is adopt the adhan of Abu Mahdhurah, identical to the one just described, except that the tarji' is recommended in it: the muezzin lowers his voice during the two testimonies while letting those present hear them, then returns raising his voice, by virtue of the consensus of the people of Medina and their continuous practice.
Malik, however, said two takbirs at the beginning suffice, the adhan then counting seventeen words; with al-Shafi'i the opening takbir is fourfold and the adhan counts nineteen words.
Malik's position is supported by what Muslim reports from Abu Mahdhurah: the Prophet of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) taught him this adhan: "Allah is the Greatest" (twice only); then he lowers his voice and says: "I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah" (twice), "I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah" (twice); then he repeats the two testimonies raising his voice: "I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah" (twice), "I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah" (twice), "Come to prayer" (twice), "Come to success" (twice), "Allah is the Greatest" (twice), "There is no deity but Allah". This is how Muslim narrated it, and the opening takbir occurs only twice (reported by Muslim, 379; al-Ishraf ala nukt masail al-khilaf, 1/226-227, no. 146; al-Zarqani, 1/157; al-Sharh al-Saghir, 1/168-169; al-Ifsah, 1/130).
Al-Shafi'i's position is supported by what Abu Dawud and others report: the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) mentioned four takbirs at the beginning (al-Bayan, 2/63-65; al-Majmu, 4/151; al-Najm al-Wahhaj, 2/48-50; al-Ifsah, 1/130). From Abu Mahdhurah (may Allah be pleased with him): I said: O Messenger of Allah, teach me the sunnah of the adhan. He passed his hand over the front of my head and said:
You say: Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest, raising your voice. Then you say: I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah, I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah, I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, lowering your voice. Then you raise your voice with the testimony: I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah (twice), I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah (twice), Come to prayer (twice), Come to success (twice). If it is the dawn prayer, you say: Prayer is better than sleep (twice), Allah is the Greatest (twice), There is no deity but Allah.Authentic hadith: reported by Abu Dawud (500) and Ibn Hibban in his Sahih (1682)
The fuqaha differed over the form of the iqama as they differed over the form of the adhan.
Abu Hanifa said: the iqama is doubled phrase by phrase like the adhan, and is distinguished from it by the phrase "Prayer has begun" said twice; the iqama counts seventeen words with him, namely:
Abu Hanifa relied on the hadith of Abu Mahdhurah that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) taught him an iqama of seventeen words (reported by Abu Dawud, 502; al-Tirmidhi, 192, who judged it hasan sahih; Ibn Majah, 709), and on the hadith of Abdallah ibn Zayd: the one who had taught him the adhan moved away for a moment, then stood and pronounced its like, except that he said: "Prayer has begun" (authentic hadith: reported by Abu Dawud, 506-507).
Malik said: the iqama has ten words, all of them single, namely: "Allah is the Greatest" (twice), "I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah", "I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah", "Come to prayer", "Come to success", "Prayer has begun", "Allah is the Greatest" (twice), "There is no deity but Allah". Imam Malik relied on what al-Bukhari and Muslim report from Anas: Bilal was ordered to double the adhan and make the iqama odd in number (reported by al-Bukhari, 605-606).
Imam al-Shafi'i, according to the most widely known view of his school, and Ahmad, hold an iqama of eleven words, all single except the iqama phrase pronounced twice, namely: "Allah is the Greatest" (twice), "I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah", "I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah", "Come to prayer", "Come to success", "Prayer has begun" (twice), "Allah is the Greatest" (twice), "There is no deity but Allah" (hasan hadith: reported by Abu Dawud, 510; al-Nasa'i, 128; Ibn Hibban in his Sahih, 4/565; Ibn Khuzaymah in his Sahih, 1/193; Sharh Ma'ani al-Athar, 1/464; al-Sharh al-Saghir, 1/172; al-Majmu, 4/153; al-Mughni, 1/510-511; al-Ifsah, 1/131-132; al-Tahmid, 18/312-313).
Imam al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) said: the scholars (may Allah be pleased with them) differed over the iqama phrase; the most widely known position of our school, on which the texts of al-Shafi'i (may Allah be pleased with him) are explicit and which Ahmad and the majority of scholars followed, is that it has eleven words.
Malik (may Allah have mercy on him), according to the most widely known view of his school, holds it to be ten words, without doubling the iqama phrase: this is an early view of al-Shafi'i. There is an anomalous view: saying "Allah is the Greatest" once at the beginning and once at the end, and "Prayer has begun" once, making eight words; the first view is the correct one. Abu Hanifa said the iqama has seventeen words, all doubled: this madhhab is anomalous.
Al-Khattabi said: the madhhab of the majority of scholars, the one followed in practice in the Two Sanctuaries, the Hijaz, Syria, Yemen, Egypt, the Maghreb and the farthest lands of Islam, is that the iqama is pronounced singly. Imam Abu Sulayman al-Khattabi (may Allah have mercy on him) said: the view of most scholars is that one repeats "Prayer has begun", except Malik: the widely known position from him is that he does not repeat it; Allah knows best.
The wisdom in making the iqama single and the adhan doubled is that the adhan is meant to inform the absent, so it is repeated to make the information more effective, while the iqama is for those present, with no need for repetition. This is why the scholars say the raising of the voice in the iqama is less than in the adhan. Only the iqama phrase was doubled because it is the very purpose of the iqama; Allah knows best.
If it is objected that the view chosen by the majority gives an iqama of eleven words, among which "Allah is the Greatest" is said twice at the beginning and the end, which is a doubling, the answer is that this doubling, though it takes its form, remains a single usage relative to the adhan: our companions say the muezzin should preferably pronounce each pair of takbirs in one breath.
Al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him) explicitly affirmed the tathwib in the old (al-Qadim) and, in the new (al-Jadid), made it conditional upon the authenticity of the hadith of Abu Mahdhurah concerning it. The shaykh Abu Hamid (al-Ghazali) said: it is a sunnah by unanimous opinion, for the hadith is authentic. Malik, al-Thawri, Ahmad, Ishaq and Abu Thawr followed him in this (al-Bayan, 2/64).
The four imams agreed that the tathwib in the adhan applies only to the adhan of the dawn prayer (al-Ifsah, 1/133; al-Mughni, 1/512; al-Majmu, 4/155, 160; al-Umm, 1/85).
Abu Omar ibn Abd al-Barr said: I know of no disagreement: the tathwib, among the generality of scholars and their specialists alike, is the muezzin's saying "Prayer is better than sleep"; this is why most fuqaha said: no tathwib except at dawn (al-Tahmid, 18/311; al-Ifsah, 1/133; al-Ishraf ala nukt masail al-khilaf, 1/227-229, no. 148).
The scholars do not disagree that it is recommended for whoever hears the muezzin to repeat what he says, then to pray upon the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), from Abdallah ibn Amr ibn al-As who heard the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) say:
When you hear the muezzin, repeat what he says, then pray upon me: whoever prays upon me a single prayer, Allah prays upon him ten times thereby. Then ask Allah for the Wasilah for me: it is a rank in Paradise belonging to none but a servant among the servants of Allah, and I hope to be that one; whoever asks the Wasilah for me, intercession becomes lawful for him.Reported by Muslim (384)
It is recommended to say at the phrases "Come to prayer, Come to success": "There is no power nor strength except through Allah", from Abu Rafi' from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): whenever he heard the muezzin he would repeat what he said, and when he reached "Come to prayer, Come to success" he would say: "There is no power nor strength except through Allah" (authentic hadith: reported by Imam Ahmad, 6/9).
The Shafi'is and the Hanbalis hold that the muezzin should follow his own words in secret with their like, like the one who listens, so as to combine performing the adhan and repeating it. It is reported from Imam Ahmad that when he called and pronounced a phrase of the adhan he would repeat its like in secret. Ibn Qudamah said: apparently he considered it recommended, so that what he manifests is an adhan and a call to prayer, and what he keeps secret is the remembrance of Allah, making him like one who has heard the adhan (Mughni al-Muhtaj, 1/141; al-Mughni, 1/541; Sharh Muntaha al-Iradat, 1/138; Matalib Uli al-Nuha, 1/301; al-Furu, 1/281).
Al-Khattab al-Shirbini said: it is a sunnah for each of them, the muezzin, the one who hears in his presence and the one who listens from afar (the author's shaykh adds: and the resident, a view he does not see for others), to pray upon the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) after finishing the adhan or the iqama, because of his saying (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): When you hear the muezzin, repeat what he says, then pray upon me: whoever prays upon me a single prayer, Allah prays upon him ten times thereby (Mughni al-Muhtaj, 1/141).
Al-Nawawi said in al-Majmu: it is recommended for the muezzin, after finishing his adhan, to say the remembrances mentioned above: the prayer upon the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), asking for the Wasilah and the supplication between the adhan and the iqama (al-Majmu, 4/186-187). He also said: our school holds the repetition of the muezzin's words to be a sunnah, not an obligation, and the majority of scholars agree (al-Majmu, 4/189).
The following conditions are required for the adhan of the prayer.
1. The entry of the time. The fuqaha do not disagree that the adhan before the entry of the prayer's time is not permitted, for it is meant to inform of the entry of the time and cannot precede it. An adhan made before the time brings no benefit and must be repeated after the entry of the time; this applies to the prayers other than dawn.
Ibn al-Mundhir said: the people of knowledge agreed that it is part of the sunnah to call the adhan for the prayers after the entry of their time, except for dawn (al-Ijma, 41). Ibn Qudamah (may Allah have mercy on him) said: the adhan before the time, for the prayers other than dawn, does not suffice, and we know of no disagreement on this (al-Mughni, 1/514, 517).
As for dawn, the three imams Malik, al-Shafi'i and Ahmad, as well as Abu Yusuf among the Hanafis, hold that the adhan for dawn may be called before the entry of the time: in the last half of the night according to the Shafi'is (the most correct view), the Hanbalis and Abu Yusuf, and in the last sixth of the night according to the Malikis.
A second adhan at the entry of the time is a sunnah, because of the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him):
Bilal calls the adhan during the night; eat and drink until Ibn Umm Maktum calls the adhan.Reported by al-Bukhari (620) and Muslim (1092)
This indicates the continuity of his practice, and the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) ratified it without forbidding him: its permissibility is therefore established.
Abu Hanifa and Muhammad ibn al-Hasan said: the adhan for dawn is not permitted except at the entry of the time, with no distinction from the other prayers, based on what Ibn Omar reports: Bilal called the adhan before dawn broke, and the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) ordered him to go back and call: "The servant is asleep, the servant is asleep" (authentic hadith: reported by Abu Dawud, 532; al-Tirmidhi, 302; al-Daruqutni, 1/244-245; al-Bayhaqi in al-Kubra, 1/383).
From Bilal: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to him: "Do not call the adhan until dawn becomes clear to you like this", stretching out his two arms widthwise (hasan hadith: reported by Abu Dawud, 534).
A narration from Ahmad indicates that he disliked the adhan before dawn in the month of Ramadan, lest people be deceived by it and abandon their pre-dawn meal (suhur).