al-Adhan wal-Iqama

al-Adhan wal-Iqama (The Call to Prayer and the Commencement of Prayer) is a legal treatise by Saeed bin Wahf al-Qahtani (1371–1440 AH / 1951–2018 CE) examining the rulings, regulations, and virtues of the adhan and iqama in light of the Quran and the Sunnah al-Adhan wal-Iqama.

Composition and Sources

The work was completed on the morning of Friday, 18 Sha'ban 1420 AH (26 November 1999 CE) as the twenty-first installment in the author's published monograph series al-Adhan wal-Iqama+1. In compiling the legal assessments and preferred positions throughout the treatise, al-Qahtani drew extensively from the teachings and verifications of his instructor, Shaykh Abd al-Aziz ibn Abd Allah ibn Baz al-Adhan wal-Iqama. Every legal determination is accompanied by textual evidence directly extracted from hadith collections and classical legal commentaries, including quotations from figures such as Ibn Taymiyya and al-Nawawi al-Adhan wal-Iqama+1.

Structure and Content

The treatise is organized into thematic sections detailing the following topics:

• Definition and Legal Ruling: The linguistic and legal definitions of both adhan and iqama, establishing their status as a collective obligation (fard kifayah) incumbent upon men—to the exclusion of women—for the five daily prescribed prayers and the Friday prayer, whether resident or traveling, individually or in congregation al-Adhan wal-Iqama.
• Virtues of the Adhan and Muezzins: A survey of authentic prophetic traditions detailing the spiritual status of muezzins on the Day of Resurrection, their forgiveness, and the expulsion of Satan upon the proclamation of the call al-Adhan wal-Iqama+1.
• Manner and Phrasing: The fifteen-phrase formulation of Bilal ibn Rabah's adhan and the eleven-phrase iqama as narrated by Abd Allah ibn Zayd, alongside the variant seventeen- and nineteen-phrase forms from Abu Mahdhura, treating these differences as legitimate variations (ikhtilaf tanawwu'); this section also covers the formula الصلاة خير من النوم ("Prayer is better than sleep") in the final Dawn (Fajr) call al-Adhan wal-Iqama+1.
• Etiquette of the Muezzin: Recommended practices such as ritual purity, deliberate pacing for the call and promptness for the commencement, calling from an elevated place facing the qibla, placing fingers in the ears, turning right and left during the hay'alat, possessing a strong and pleasant voice, honesty, and performing the task purely for the sake of God al-Adhan wal-Iqama+1.
• The Pre-Dawn Call: The ruling and purpose of the first adhan before true dawn to alert night worshippers and awaken sleepers al-Adhan wal-Iqama.
• Conditions of Validity: Requirements pertaining to the call itself—proper sequence, continuity, performance after the prescribed prayer time enters, and absence of meaning-distorting grammatical errors (lahn)—as well as conditions for the muezzin, including Islam, discernment (tamyiz), sanity, male gender, and apparent moral uprightness ('adl) al-Adhan wal-Iqama+1.
• Combined and Missed Prayers: The prescription of reciting a single adhan followed by separate iqamas for each prayer when combining two prayers during travel, rain, or illness, as well as when making up missed prayers al-Adhan wal-Iqama+1.
• Responding to the Call: The five forms of remembrance prescribed for listeners, comprising the repetition of the muezzin's words, the testimony following the shahada, sending blessings upon the Prophet ﷺ, petitioning God for the Wasilah, and private supplication between the call and the commencement al-Adhan wal-Iqama+1.