THE ADHAN

By Rabia Ahmed

                                                                                           
They say that before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them you're a mile away … and you have their shoes. 

Well, I’m just about to talk about a set of people who leave their shoes at the door, so they’re easy to steal. And I would prefer to walk more than a mile away before criticizing them, because I know that most of them cannot stomach any negative comments.  However, I shall take my life in my hands, not steal anyone’s shoes, nor walk miles away and say what I have to.  I just hope that what I say is taken in the right spirit.

Nothing is more hauntingly beautiful than the Adhan that one hears at Medina, or Mecca. Particularly the Fajr Adhan borne on the morning breeze convinces you that truly Allah is Great (Allahu Akbar!), and there is no God but Allah.  The words ‘Hurry towards prayers!’ (hayya ala-s-salah!) galvanize you into obedience and you know you are going towards your salvation (hayya ala-al falah). You even agree, however sleepy you may be, that prayer is better than sleep (assalatu khairun minan naum).

However, we live in Lahore, not far from a group of four or five mosques.  So help me God, five times a day the Adhan is heard from all these five mosques simultaneously. 

Somewhere behind a pert little rickshaw scuttling around Lahore there is the following couplet:

Ai bulbul tairee kookh say dil narm sa hua jata tha   (oh nightingale, your voice used to thrill me once)

Ab issi kookh say dil dhar say gir jata hai, kyun?       (but now it only scares me, why is that?)

Dare I apply this to the Adhan in our neighbourhood?

I prefer to believe the best about people, because it saves a lot of trouble, so I’m sure our Muezzins (people who issue the call to prayer) are nice men, and like all nice men they mean well.  But these particular nice men do not recite the Adhan nicely, because they have neither nice voices, nor very nice accents.

Abu Said Al-Khudri is quoted as saying: Allah's Apostle said, "Whenever you hear the Adhan, say what the Muezzin is saying.”

But how is one to say what the Muezzen is saying, when you can’t understand what the Muezzin is saying, and when five Muezzin’s are vying with us each to see who can best shout the other down?

Not only is there utter chaos and cacophony, but the mikes squeal.  You are awoken by the sound of a shrill scream followed by the Muezzin clearing his throat, loudly. He then proceeds to bellow his way through the beautiful words of the Adhan in a strong Punjabi accent. You almost hear Sultan Rahi saying ‘Oy’ before the Adhan begins.

This goes on in five different voices, each more unsuitable to the task than the other.  If making enough noise to wake people is what is called for, these Muezzins are doing their job just fine.

Friday mornings is Karaoke time when all the little tots from the local madrassahs have a shot at the mike starting well before Fajr, carrying on until day break. This also happens at every auspicious day on the religious calendar, and throughout Ramadan. They sing naats, hamd and duas, all on the mike, and the tunes are vintage Bollywood. 

I can understand that it must be hard to organize Adhan today.  In the time of the Prophet Mohammad (p b u h), it would have been possible to reach a large segment of the population from a single mosque without a mike.

Now, the population has grown, and so have noise levels. We therefore need to re-organise this tradition of calling people to prayer so that it reaches people over and above other sounds in a befitting manner.

I would therefore like to make the following suggestions:

It is important that the Muezzin sound pleasant, and be clear in his enunciation just as it is already recommended that the Imam, who leads our prayers, should be of pleasant appearance, and should speak clearly. 

This means that the Muezzin should have a clear understanding of what he is saying when he enunciates the call to prayer.

A system is required so that in the one neighbourhood there is the least possible overlap of Adhans from separate mosques. Maybe, we could restrict the Adhan to one mosque per every five miles?

Starting this year, the Egyptian government was to implement a plan whereby the Adhan is broadcast in the voice of a single Muezzin from a state radio station to all of the capital’s 4000 mosques via wireless receivers.  We could consider this or other suggestions.

Lastly, let’s reflect on the following Hadith by Abu Dawud and Tirmidhi: “Allah bestows His kindness and affection on those who are kind and considerate to His creatures.”

The mind boggles when you imagine how loud Adhan on a mike must sound in the immediate vicinity of each mosque. For people with babies, sick individuals, or just anyone else, proximity to a mosque precludes sleep, study, or nursing a headache, both before and after they’ve said their prayers, even though Fajr in June is at 3:15am, leaving almost four hours before schools start and longer before people in offices start work for the day.  This is not right, because while prayer might be better than sleep, sleep is also important, and cannot be done away with.

The Adhan must be based on the guidelines that while the Muezzin’s job is to issue the call for prayer it is not his job to keep people awake.  Mikes in mosques should be used strictly for the Adhan, and for the Adhan alone, when they should be in the hands of people able to use them well. 

This article was printed in The Friday Times on the 17th November 2010. The Friday Times is available online only for subscribers.