O Son !

THE AZÂN (or ADHÂN)
64– O son! Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ stated:
“This prayer should be said when the azân is (heard being) called:
‘Wa anna eshhadu an lâilâha illallâhu wahdahu lâ sherîka leh wa
eshhadu anna Muhammadan ’abduhu wa rasûluh wa radîtu billâhi
Rabban we bi-l-islâmi dînan wa bi Muhammadin ‘sall-Allâhu
’alaihi wa sallama rasûlan nebiyyâ.’ ” If a Muslim, upon hearing an
azân-i-Muhammadî being performed agreeably with Islam, listens
to it in deep reverence and thereafter says the prayer quoted
above, his sins will be forgiven regardless of their number. And
again, the Best of Mankind stated: “O my Ummat-u-Ashâb! When
the azân is finished, say this prayer: ‘Allâhumma Rabba hâdhihi-dda’wat-i-t-tâmmati
wa-s-salât-il-qâimati âti Muhammadan-ilwesîlata
wa-l-fadîlata wa-d-darajat-er-refî’ata wa-b-’as-hu
maqâman mahmûd-an-illedhî waadtahu innaka lâ tuhliful mîâd.’ ”
Great thawâb will be given to a person who says this prayer
beautifully.
65– Pay respect and deep veneration to an azân being
performed agreeably with Islam! The azân is the truest expression
ever uttered on earth.
Hadrat ’Âisha ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’ [d. 57 A.H., in Medîna at the
age of sixty-five] would always listen to an azân. She was asked: O
Mother of Believers! Why do you stop working whenever the azân
is called? Her reply was as follows: I heard from Rasûlullah ‘sall-
Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’: “It is a religious shortcoming to work as
the azân is being performed.”
Abû Haws Haddâd ‘rahima-hullâhu ta’âlâ’ [d. 265 A.H. in
Nishâpur] was a blacksmith. Every time he heard an azân being
performed, he wold not let his hammer go down if he had raised it
up; and if the hammer was down on the anvil he would not raise it
up. If he was having a conversation with someone, he would stop
talking at once and listen to the azân being performed. And he was
dead one day. His friends and acquaintances were carrying his
janâza, when the muazzin began to call the azân, saying, “Allâhu
ekber,” on the minaret. People carrying the janâza were no longer
able to walk. Try as they would, they failed to move the janâza.
Only at the end of the azân was it possible for them to resume
carrying the janâza. People who revere and respect the Azân-i-
Muhammadî and who perform it agreeably with the Sunnat on a
minaret without changing and defiling its letters and words and
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