Adhān
Adhān is the Islamic call to prayer, a ritual proclamation announcing the time for the five daily obligatory prayers (al-ṣalawāt al-khams). In Islamic terminology, it is a structured verbal invocation that calls the community to congregational worship and affirms the central tenets of faith. The standard wording includes declarations of the oneness of God (tawḥīd) and the prophethood of Muḥammad ﷺ, culminating in the invitation to prayer and success (ḥayya ʿala al-ṣalāh, ḥayya ʿala al-falāḥ).
The institution of the adhān was established in Madinah after the Hijrah (c. 1–2 AH / 622–624 CE), when the Muslim community required a formal method to summon believers to congregational prayer. According to authentic ḥadīth, the Companions initially discussed various methods, including the use of bells or horns, before the practice was instituted through revelation-guided approval. The most widely transmitted report describes the dream of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Zayd, in which he was taught the wording of the adhān. The Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ affirmed this vision and instructed Bilāl ibn Rabāḥ to perform it, marking the first public recitation of the adhān in Islam, preserved in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim. Bilāl thereafter became the first official muʾadhdhin of Islam, a role he continued throughout the Prophet’s lifetime.
The Qurʾān provides the foundational basis for the concept of the call to prayer, most notably in Qurʾān 62:9, which commands believers to respond when the call is made for Friday prayer. While the Qurʾān does not prescribe the detailed formula of the adhān, it establishes the principle of public summoning to worship. Classical exegetes and jurists understood this verse as supporting the institutional development of the adhān in Madinah, where it became an essential feature of communal religious life.
In the sunnah, the adhān is described as both a liturgical act and a declaration of Islamic identity. It marks the boundaries of daily ritual time and structures the rhythm of Muslim communal life. The Prophet ﷺ emphasized its merit, stating that those who call to prayer are among the most virtuous servants due to their role in guiding others to worship. Early sīrah sources such as Ibn Isḥāq (via Ibn Hishām), al-Ṭabarī’s Tārīkh al-Rusul wa al-Mulūk, and Ibn Saʿd’s al-Ṭabaqāt al-Kubrā record the establishment of the adhān as a defining moment in the organization of the Madinan community.
The significance of the adhān extends beyond its function as a call to prayer; it serves as a public affirmation of Islamic belief, uniting doctrine and ritual in a single proclamation. Its repeated daily recitation reinforces core theological principles—tawḥīd and the prophethood of Muḥammad ﷺ—while also symbolizing the presence of the Muslim community in public space. In sīrah historiography, the institution of the adhān represents a key stage in the consolidation of Islam in Mad┘nah, reflecting the transition from private worship to organized communal religious practice.
## References
1 Qurʾān 62:9. 2 Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, Tārīkh al-Ṭabarī, trans. Syed Muḥammad Ibrāhīm and Ḥabīb al-Raḥmān Ṣiddīqī (Karachi: Nafīs Academy, 1990),2:114-115. 3 Ṣafī al-Raḥmān Mubārakpūrī, al-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm (Urdu) (Lahore: Maktabah al-Salafiyyah, 1995), 240-242. 4 Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Yasār and Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Hishām, Sīrat Ibn Hishām, Urdu trans. Syed Yāsīn ʿAlī Ḥusnī Niẓāmī (Lahore: Idārah Islāmiyāt, 1994), 1: 342-343. 5 Shiblī Nuʿmānī and Syed Sulaimān Nadwī, Sīrat al-Nabī (Lahore: Maktabah Khalīl, 1990), 1: 138. 6 Abū ʿUbayd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Saʿd al-Baṣrī, Ṭabaqāt Ibn Saʿd, trans. ʿAbdullāh al-ʿAmadī (Karachi: Dār al-Ishāʿat, 2003), 1: 221-224. 7 Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed. (Leiden: Brill, 1960–2005), s.v. “Adhān.”