Virtues of the Adhan and the Mu’adhdhin

Five times a day, in every land where Muslims live, a voice rises above the rooftops and calls the believers to prayer. Because it is so familiar, it is easy to let the adhan pass over us as background sound rather than a moment to stop and listen. Yet the Prophet ﷺ spoke about this call, and about the one who gives it, in terms that should make every listener sit up. He described a reward so great that people would compete for it by drawing lots. He described a caller whose voice, raised even in an empty wilderness, gathers witnesses from among men, jinn, and every creature that hears it. He described the mu’adhdhins standing out on the Day of Resurrection with the longest necks of all people. And he taught the listener exactly how to answer the call, phrase by phrase, ending with a promise of Paradise for the one who responds from the heart.

This article gathers what Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim record about the virtues of the adhan and the mu’adhdhin: the call itself, the caller’s reward, the testimony of creation, and the listener’s answer — each resting directly on the quoted texts.

1. A Reward People Would Draw Lots For

Abu Huraira narrated that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ measured the reward of the adhan against something his listeners understood well: competition. When a prize is so valuable that everyone wants it and there is no fair way to choose, people draw lots. That, he said, is what the reward of pronouncing the adhan is like:

“If the people knew the reward for pronouncing the Adhan and for standing in the first row (in congregational prayers) and found no other way to get that except by drawing lots they would draw lots” (Sahih al-Bukhari 615 — Sahih)

Notice what the hadith does and does not say. It does not put a number on the reward; it does not say “ten times” or “seventy times.” Instead it tells us that if people truly knew the reward, the demand for the honour of calling the adhan would be so intense that lots would have to be cast to settle who gets it. The reward is hidden from us in its measure, but the Prophet’s ﷺ image tells us its scale: a prize people would compete for, paired in the same breath with the first row of the congregational prayer.

The pairing itself is instructive: the adhan is placed beside the first row behind the imam, one of the most sought-after places in the mosque. If you would like to explore the rewards attached to praying together in congregation, our article on the virtues of congregation prayer gathers them from the authentic narrations.

2. Racing to Zuhr, and Crawling to Isha and Fajr

The same narration continues, and its remaining images belong to the same theme: the prayer, approached eagerly and on time, is worth more effort than we usually give it:

“and if they knew the reward of the Zuhr prayer (in the early moments of its stated time) they would race for it (go early) and if they knew the reward of `Isha’ and Fajr (morning) prayers in congregation, they would come to offer them even if they had to crawl.” (Sahih al-Bukhari 615 — Sahih)

Three pictures are painted here. The first is of people racing — competing in speed — to reach the Zuhr prayer in the early moments of its time. The second and third are of people coming to the Isha and Fajr prayers in congregation even if the only way to get there was to crawl. Crawling is the movement of someone who cannot walk: the hadith imagines a believer so determined not to miss the congregation that weakness of the body does not excuse him in his own eyes.

This is the company the adhan keeps in the narration: it is the doorway into a prayer that is guarded, hurried to, and attended in congregation at real cost. The one who pronounces the adhan summons people to all of that, which is one reason his reward is described in such competitive terms.

The Fajr prayer in particular is singled out here, together with Isha, as the two congregational prayers people would crawl to attend if they knew their reward. Those are the two prayers called in darkness, when leaving the house costs the most effort. Our article on the virtues of Fajr prayer collects what the authentic narrations say about that dawn prayer on its own.

3. Raise Your Voice — Even in the Wilderness

The next narration takes us far away from the crowded mosque, to a man alone with his sheep in the countryside. Abu Sa’id al-Khudri met the father of Abdur-Rahman and gave him a piece of advice that he had heard from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ himself:

“I see you liking sheep and the wilderness. So whenever you are with your sheep or in the wilderness and you want to pronounce Adhan for the prayer raise your voice in doing so, for whoever hears the Adhan, whether a human being, a jinn or any other creature, will be a witness for you on the Day of Resurrection.” (Sahih al-Bukhari 609 — Sahih)

And so that there is no doubt where this teaching came from, the narration closes with Abu Sa’id’s own words:

“I heard it (this narration) from Allah’s Messenger.” (Sahih al-Bukhari 609 — Sahih)

Consider the setting. A shepherd in the wilderness has no congregation to summon. Nobody will answer his call; no rows will form behind an imam because of it. Humanly speaking, his adhan achieves nothing at all. Yet the Prophet ﷺ told him to raise his voice and pronounce it anyway — and told him why: because the adhan is never truly unheard. Every hearing of it registers somewhere, and the hearers, whoever and whatever they are, will stand as witnesses for the caller on the Day of Resurrection.

This transforms what the adhan is. It is not merely a public announcement that works only when a crowd responds. It is an act of worship in itself, whose value does not depend on the size of the human audience. The traveller alone in a desert place, the worker in an empty field, the family in a remote home: each is addressed by this narration. Pronounce the adhan, raise your voice with it, and leave the witnessing to Allah.

4. Every Hearer Will Be a Witness for You

Stay with the words of Bukhari 609 a little longer, because their detail is remarkable: “whoever hears the Adhan, whether a human being, a jinn or any other creature, will be a witness for you on the Day of Resurrection.”

The audience of the adhan, in this narration, is the whole of creation within earshot. Human beings, certainly — but also the jinn, who share the world with us unseen, and “any other creature” besides. Nothing that hears the call is excluded from the witnessing. The shepherd’s raised voice in an apparently empty valley is, in reality, heard by more listeners than he will ever know, and every one of them is recorded as a witness in his favour.

Think about what a witness is for. A witness testifies on a day when testimony matters — the Day of Resurrection, when deeds are weighed and accounts are settled. The mu’adhdhin, simply by raising his voice with the call, gathers an assembly of witnesses for that day wherever he happens to be; the hearing itself makes them witnesses, and the wider his voice carries, the wider their circle.

It is worth noticing, too, that the witness is “for you” — in the caller’s favour. Creation’s testimony about the mu’adhdhin is not neutral surveillance; it is evidence presented on his side. A lifetime of calling the adhan five times a day, year after year, then means a lifetime of gathering witnesses across the whole span of one’s life, from every place the call was ever raised — the mosque minaret, the home, the roadside, the wilderness.

5. The Longest Necks on the Day of Resurrection

Mu’awiya ibn Abi Sufyan was sitting with company when the mu’adhdhin came to call them to prayer, and on that occasion he related what he had heard from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ:

“The Mu’adhdhins will have the longest necks on the Day of Resurrection.” (Sahih Muslim 387 — Sahih)

The scene of the narration is itself fitting: the words were remembered and repeated at the very moment a mu’adhdhin was doing his work, calling the people around him to prayer. And the promise they contain sets the mu’adhdhins apart on the most crowded day in existence. On the Day of Resurrection, when all of mankind is gathered together, the callers to prayer will be distinguished by a visible mark of honour — necks longer than those of anyone else, raised above the gathering.

Put this beside the witness narration and a picture forms of the mu’adhdhin’s position on that Day from two directions. From Bukhari 609, creation testifies for him. From Muslim 387, he himself stands out in the assembly, recognisable by the honour Allah gives him. The man who spent his life raising his voice so that others would come to prayer is, on the final Day, raised up so that all can see him.

There is also a quiet encouragement here for how the role of mu’adhdhin should be viewed in this life. In many communities it is an unnoticed duty, yet the Prophet ﷺ presents it as an office its holder will be visibly honoured for in the next life. Whoever takes it up — in a mosque, a prayer room, or a home — is taking up something far greater than it may appear.

6. Answering the Call, Phrase by Phrase

The adhan is not only for the caller. The listener has a share in it too, and Sahih Muslim records the Prophet’s ﷺ instruction for exactly what the listener should do. Umar ibn al-Khattab reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“When the Mu’adhdhin says: Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest, and one of you should make this response: Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest; (and when the Mu’adhdhin) says: I testify that there is no god but Allah, one should respond: I testify that there is no god but Allah, and when he says: I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, one should make a response: I testify that Muhammad is Allah’s Messenger.” (Sahih Muslim 385 — Sahih)

The pattern is simple: the listener repeats after the mu’adhdhin what the mu’adhdhin says. The takbir is answered with the takbir; the two testimonies are answered with the same testimonies, spoken by the listener as his own declaration. Answering the adhan is therefore not passive hearing — the listener himself pronounces the words of tawhid and of the Prophet’s ﷺ messengership, confirming with his own tongue what the caller announces.

But at two phrases the pattern changes, and the change is deliberate:

“When he (the Mu’adhdhin) says: Come to prayer, one should make a response: There is no might and no power except with Allah. When he (the Mu’adhdhin) says: Come to salvation, one should respond: There is no might and no power except with Allah, and when he (the Mu’adhdhin) says: Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest, then make a response: Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest.” (Sahih Muslim 385 — Sahih)

At “Come to prayer” and “Come to salvation,” the listener does not repeat the summons. Instead he says: “There is no might and no power except with Allah.” The summons is addressed to him, and his answer acknowledges the truth about responding to it: rising, leaving what occupies him, and walking to the prayer is something he can only do by Allah’s help. Then, when the takbir returns at the end of the call, he returns to repeating it after the caller.

So the full answer to the adhan, as this hadith lays it out, is:

– The mu’adhdhin says “Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest” — you respond with the same words. – He says “I testify that there is no god but Allah” — you respond with the same words. – He says “I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah” — you respond with the same words. – He says “Come to prayer” — you respond: “There is no might and no power except with Allah.” – He says “Come to salvation” — you respond: “There is no might and no power except with Allah.” – He says “Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest” — you respond with the same words. – He says “There is no god but Allah” — and this final response is the subject of the next section.

Once the call has been answered in this way, there is also a supplication that the Prophet ﷺ made after the adhan, which we have gathered separately in our guide to the dua after the adhan.

7. A Response From the Heart Ends in Paradise

The narration of Umar ibn al-Khattab closes with the final phrase of the adhan and the reward attached to answering it:

“When he (the Mu’adhdhin) says: There is no god but Allah, and he who makes a response from the heart: There is no god but Allah, he will enter Paradise.” (Sahih Muslim 385 — Sahih)

Every part of this ending matters. The final words of the adhan are the words of tawhid itself: “There is no god but Allah.” The listener’s final response is to say those same words — but with a condition attached that appears only here, at the very end: “from the heart.” The reward promised for it is the greatest reward there is: “he will enter Paradise.”

The whole exchange of the adhan, then, is crowned by sincerity. The caller announces; the listener answers; and the last answer is not complete merely by moving the tongue. It must come from the heart — a genuine affirmation, by the one who hears it, that there is no god but Allah. Five times a day, this brief exchange gives every Muslim who hears the call the chance to renew that affirmation and to take the promise attached to it.

This also completes the balance of the article’s theme. The mu’adhdhin’s virtues are immense — a competed-for reward, witnesses from all creation, the longest necks on the Day of Resurrection. But the listener is not left as a bystander to those virtues. By the simple, taught act of answering — repeating the words, turning to Allah for help at the summons, and sealing it from the heart — the listener receives a promise of his own, and it is Paradise.

8. The Call and the Caller: What These Narrations Teach Together

Gather the four narrations together and they form a complete circle. Bukhari 615 shows the reward of the adhan from the side of competition: it is a prize worth drawing lots for, set beside the first row, the early Zuhr, and the congregational Isha and Fajr that people would crawl to reach. Bukhari 609 shows the same call from the side of the solitary caller: raised even in the wilderness, it is heard by men, jinn, and every creature, and all of them will testify for the one who raised it. Muslim 387 shows the caller’s end: distinguished on the Day of Resurrection with the longest neck of all. And Muslim 385 brings the listener inside the act, teaching him to answer phrase by phrase until the final, heartfelt “There is no god but Allah” — with Paradise as its promise.

For the one learning the prayer itself, the adhan is the sound that begins it all; our step-by-step guide on how to pray Salah starts where the call leaves off. And because every one of these virtues flows into the prayer the adhan announces, the virtues of Salah themselves are worth reading next: the call is honoured because of the greatness of what it calls to.

The next time the adhan sounds — from a minaret, from a phone, from a lone voice in a quiet place — these narrations give us eyes to see it differently. Someone is earning a reward people would draw lots for. Creation is listening, and will testify. And a door is open for everyone who hears: answer, from the heart, and take hold of the promise.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the reward for pronouncing the adhan? The Prophet ﷺ said that if people knew the reward for pronouncing the adhan and for standing in the first row, and found no other way to obtain it except by drawing lots, they would draw lots (Sahih al-Bukhari 615). The hadith does not state a number; it compares the reward to a prize so desired that people would compete for it by lot.

Should I pronounce the adhan when I am alone? Yes, based on the narration of Abu Sa’id al-Khudri: the Prophet ﷺ taught that a man with his sheep in the wilderness should still pronounce the adhan and raise his voice with it, because whoever hears it — human, jinn, or any creature — will be a witness for him on the Day of Resurrection (Sahih al-Bukhari 609).

What does “the longest necks on the Day of Resurrection” mean for the mu’adhdhins? It is the wording of the Prophet ﷺ himself, who said: “The Mu’adhdhins will have the longest necks on the Day of Resurrection” (Sahih Muslim 387). It presents the callers to prayer as a group visibly distinguished and honoured in the gathering of that Day.

How should I respond when I hear the adhan? Repeat after the mu’adhdhin what he says: the takbir, and the two testimonies, each answered with the same words. When he says “Come to prayer” and “Come to salvation,” respond instead with “There is no might and no power except with Allah.” When he returns to the takbir, repeat it, and answer the final “There is no god but Allah” with the same words (Sahih Muslim 385).

What is promised to the one who answers the adhan from the heart? The Prophet ﷺ said that when the mu’adhdhin says “There is no god but Allah,” the one who responds from the heart with “There is no god but Allah” will enter Paradise (Sahih Muslim 385).