The Ruling on Repeating the First Adhān of Jumuʿah: A Scholarly Clarification – Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan

Questioner: With regard to the first adhān of the Friday prayer (Ṣalāt al-Jumuʿah), is the adhān to be repeated after the muʾadhdhin?

Shaykh Ṣāliḥ ibn Fawzān al-Fawzān (b. 1354 AH / 1935 CE) The first adhān is Islamically legislated because it is from the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs (al-Khulafāʾ al-Rāshidūn). The third Caliph, ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān (d. 35 AH / 656 CE), instituted it while the Rightly Guided Caliph ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (d. 40 AH / 661 CE), the Muhājirūn, and the Anṣār were present. They did not object to it, nor did they prohibit it. An exception to this is what has been narrated from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar (d. 73 AH / 693 CE). Ibn Abī Shaybah (d. 235 AH / 849 CE) reported in his Muṣannaf that Ibn ʿUmar described it as an innovation (bidʿah). However, Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī (d. 795 AH / 1393 CE) explained, when commenting upon the statement of Ibn ʿUmar: “He intended a good innovation and not an evil innovation,” just as his father, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (d. 23 AH / 644 CE), said regarding the Tarāwīḥ prayer: “What a good innovation this is.” This means that it is an innovation in the linguistic sense and not in the religious sense.

Scholarly Explanations and Supporting Evidence

Ibn Rajab stated in his commentary on Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: “Due to this, the first adhān on Friday was added by ʿUthmān because of the people’s need for it. ʿAlī approved of it, and the Muslims continued to practise it. It has been reported that Ibn ʿUmar said, ‘It is an innovation,’ and he may have intended what his father intended regarding the Tarāwīḥ prayer in Ramaḍān.” He also said in his explanation of Imām al-Nawawī’s (d. 676 AH / 1277 CE) al-Arbaʿīn al-Nawawiyyah: “Another example is the first adhān on Friday, which ʿUthmān added due to the people’s need. It has been reported that Ibn ʿUmar said, ‘It is an innovation,’ but it is likely that he meant what his father meant regarding the Tarāwīḥ prayer in Ramaḍān.” He further mentioned: “Likewise is the compilation of the Qurʾān into one book. Zayd ibn Thābit (d. 45 AH / 665 CE) said to Abū Bakr and ʿUmar, ‘How can you do something which the Prophet ﷺ did not do?’ Then he realised its benefit and agreed to its compilation.”

Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH / 1328 CE) stated in al-Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā: “Whatever was enacted by the Rightly Guided Caliphs is not considered a prohibited religious innovation, even if it is called an innovation linguistically, since it was newly introduced, as ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said, ‘What a good innovation this is.’” He also said elsewhere: “If others were to oppose the Rightly Guided Caliphs, then the statements of the Rightly Guided Caliphs take precedence, due to the statement of the Prophet ﷺ: ‘You must adhere to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs after me. Hold firmly to it with your molar teeth.’” Furthermore, in Minhāj al-Sunnah, he remarked: “The correct view is that ʿAlī was among those who approved of the first adhān during the lifetime of ʿUthmān and after his martyrdom. Therefore, when he became Caliph, he did not order its termination.”

Conclusion

The first adhān of Jumuʿah was introduced by the Caliph ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān (d. 35 AH / 656 CE) due to a genuine communal need and was approved by ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (d. 40 AH / 661 CE) and the leading Companions. It was accepted and maintained by the Muslim community thereafter.

Although Ibn ʿUmar described it as an “innovation”, leading scholars clarified that he intended the linguistic meaning of bidʿah, not a blameworthy religious innovation. This is consistent with the methodological approach of the Salaf in distinguishing between linguistic novelty and prohibited religious innovation.

Accordingly, the first adhān of Jumuʿah is a legitimate Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs and forms part of the established practice of the Muslim community.

Reference

1. Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī (d. 795 AH / 1393 CE), Fatḥ al-Bārī Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, ed. Muḥammad Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī, 2nd edn, Dār al-Maʿrifah, Beirut, 1985, vol. 5, p. 462.

2. Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī, Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa al-Ḥikam fī Sharḥ al-Arbaʿīn al-Nawawiyyah, ed. Shuʿayb al-Arnāʾūṭ, Muʾassasat al-Risālah, Beirut, 2001, vol. 2, pp. 127-129.

3. Ibn Abī Shaybah, Abū Bakr ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad (d. 235 AH / 849 CE), al-Muṣannaf, ed. Kamāl Yūsuf al-Ḥūt, Maktabat al-Rushd, Riyadh, 1989, vol. 2, p. 370.

4. Ibn Taymiyyah, Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm (d. 728 AH / 1328 CE), Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā, ed. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Qāsim, King Fahd Qurʾān Printing Complex, Madinah, 1995, vol. 21, p. 319; vol. 32, p. 347.

5. Ibn Taymiyyah, Minhāj al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah, ed. Muḥammad Rashād Sālim, Jāmiʿat al-Imām Muḥammad ibn Saʿūd al-Islāmiyyah, Riyadh, 1986, vol. 2, p. 290.

6. Al-Bukhārī, Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl (d. 256 AH / 870 CE), Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, ed. Muḥammad Zuhayr Nāṣir al-Nāṣir, Dār Ṭawq al-Najāḥ, Beirut, 2001, Book of Ṣalāt al-Tarāwīḥ, Ḥadīth no. 2010.