The Call To Prayer

Was with a friend today to perform the congregational prayer at a beautiful local mosque. In the hustle and bustle of the major traffic just outside, the serenity and peace within the mosque was indeed startling. Then, when dusk came, the call to prayer sounded.

In the peace of the moment, my friend highlighted how beautiful the adhan was... and suddenly both of us were swept by sudden emotions. The sound of the adhan is familiar to most. In fact, we have also heard many stories like how by the strains of the adhan at dawn pulled many to embrace Islam, subhanAllah!

Here, I wanna share something which I came across earlier but never really paid much attention to its power. It is something probably most of us have read before. But this time, imagine a globe in front of you as you move along this article:

Have a look at a map of the world and you will find Indonesia on the eastern side of the earth. The major cities of Indonesia are Java, Sumatra, Borneo and Saibil. As soon as dawn breaks on the eastern side of Saibil, at approximately 5:30 am local time, Fajar Azaan begins.

Thousands of Muazzins in Indonesia begin reciting the Azaan. The process advances towards West Indonesia. One and a half hours after the Azaan has been completed in Saibil, it echoes in Jakarta. Sumatra then follows suit and before this auspicious process of calling Azaan ends in Indonesia, it has already begun in Malaysia .

Burma is next in line, and within an hour of its beginning in Jakarta, it reaches Dacca, the capital city of Bangladesh. After Bangladesh, it has already prevailed in western India, from Calcutta to Srinagar.

It then advances towards Bombay and the environment of entire India resounds with this proclamation. Srinagar and Sialkot (a north city in Pakistan) have the same timing for Azaan. The time difference between Sialkot, Quetta, and Karachi is forty minutes, and within this time, Fajar Aazaan is heard throughout Pakistan. Before it ends there, it has already begun in Afghanistan and Muscat.

The time difference between Muscat and Baghdad is one hour. Azaan resounds during this one hour in the environments of Hijaaz-e-Muqaddas (Holy cities of Makkah and Madinah), Yemen, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq .

The time difference between Baghdad and Alexandria in Egypt is again one hour. Azaan continues to resound in Syria, Egypt, Somalia and Sudan during this hour. The time difference between eastern and western Turkey is one and a half hours, and during this Alexandria and Tripoli (capital of Libya ) are located at one hour's difference. The process of calling Azaan thus continues throughout the whole of Africa .

Therefore, the proclamation of the "Tawheed" and "Risaalat" that had begun in Indonesia reaches the Eastern Shore of the Atlantic Ocean after nine and half hours.

Prior to the Aazaan reaching the shores of the Atlantic, the process of "Zohor Azaan" has already started in east Indonesia, and before it reaches Dacca, the Asr Azaan has started. This has hardly reached Jakarta one and half hours later, the time of "Maghrib" becomes due, and no sooner has "Maghrib" time reached Sumatra, the time for calling "Isya' Azaan" has commenced in Saibil! When the Muazzins of Indonesia are calling out "Fajar Azaan", the African Muazzins are calling the Azaan for Isya'.

If we were to ponder over this phenomenon thoughtfully, we would conclude the amazing fact that there is not even a single moment when hundreds of thousands of Muazzins around the world are not reciting the Azaan on the surface of this earth. Subhan-Allah!

Even as you read this material right now, you can be sure there is Azaan somewhere!