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 ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Fawzān: The first adhān is Islamically legislated because it is from the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs (al-Khulafāʾ ar-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 Allah ibn ʿUmar ؓ (d. 73 AH / 693 CE). Abū Bakr ʿAbd Allah ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Shaybah ؒ (d. 235 AH / 849 CE) reported in his Muṣannaf that Ibn ʿUmar described it as an innovation (bidʿah). However, Abū al-Faraj ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān ibn Aḥmad 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 is quoted in the original article as stating 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.” (Fatḥ al-Bārī 5:462)
In Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa-l-Ḥikam, his explanation of the forty hadiths compiled by Abū Zakariyyā Yaḥyā ibn Sharaf an-Nawawī ؒ (d. 676 AH / 1277 CE) together with ten additional hadiths, Ibn Rajab wrote:
ومن ذلك: أذان الجمعة الأول، زاده عثمان لحاجة الناس إليه، وأقره علي، واستمر عمل المسلمين عليه، وروي عن ابن عمر أنه قال: هو بدعة، ولعله أراد ما أراد أبوه في قيام رمضان.
“Another example is the first adhān on Friday, which ʿUthmān added because the people needed it. ʿAlī approved of it, and the Muslims continued to practise it. It is reported that Ibn ʿUmar said, ‘It is an innovation.’ Perhaps he intended what his father intended concerning the night prayer in Ramaḍān.” (Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa-l-Ḥikam, commentary on hadith 28.)
He also discussed compiling the Qurʾān into one book, mentioning Zayd ibn Thābit ؓ and Abū Bakr ʿAbd Allah ibn Abī Quḥāfah ؓ (d. 13 AH / 634 CE):
ومن ذلك جمع المصحف في كتاب واحد، توقف فيه زيد بن ثابت، وقال لأبي بكر وعمر: كيف تفعلان ما لم يفعله النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم؟ ثم علم أنه مصلحة، فوافق على جمعه.
“Another example is compiling the Qurʾān into one book. Zayd ibn Thābit hesitated over this and said to Abū Bakr and ʿUmar, ‘How can you do something which the Prophet did not do?’ Then he recognised its benefit and agreed to its compilation.” (Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa-l-Ḥikam, commentary on hadith 28.)
Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm Ibn Taymiyyah ؒ (d. 728 AH / 1328 CE) stated in Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā:
فما سنه الخلفاء الراشدون ليس بدعة شرعية ينهى عنها، وإن كان يسمى في اللغة بدعة؛ لكونه ابتدئ. كما قال عمر: نعمت البدعة هذه.
“Whatever the Rightly Guided Caliphs instituted is not a prohibited religious innovation, even if it is called an innovation linguistically because it was newly introduced, as ʿUmar said, ‘What a good innovation this is.’” (Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā, 21:319; excerpt.)
He also wrote:
فإن الخلفاء الراشدين إذا خالفهم غيرهم كان قولهم هو الراجح؛ لأن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم قال: «عليكم بسنتي وسنة الخلفاء الراشدين المهديين من بعدي، تمسكوا بها وعضوا عليها بالنواجذ».
“If others differ from the Rightly Guided Caliphs, then the position of the Rightly Guided Caliphs takes precedence, because the Prophet said, ‘Adhere to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the rightly guided Caliphs after me. Hold firmly to it and bite onto it with your molar teeth.’” (Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā, 32:347; excerpt.)
Furthermore, in Minhāj as-Sunnah an-Nabawiyyah, he answered an objection to the additional adhān:
فالجواب أن عليا رضي الله عنه كان ممن يوافق على ذلك في حياة عثمان وبعد مقتله، ولهذا لما صار خليفة لم يأمر بإزالة هذا الأذان.
“The answer is that ʿAlī, may Allah be pleased with him, was among those who approved of it during ʿUthmān’s lifetime and after his killing. Therefore, when he became Caliph, he did not order this adhān to be abolished.” (Minhāj as-Sunnah an-Nabawiyyah)
Conclusion
The first adhān of Jumuʿah was introduced by the Caliph ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān because of a genuine communal need. The explanations cited above state that ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib approved of it and that the Muslim community continued to practise it.
Although Ibn ʿUmar described it as an “innovation”, Ibn Rajab suggested that he may have intended the linguistic meaning of bidʿah, as his father had when speaking about the Tarāwīḥ prayer. This interpretation should retain the qualification expressed in Ibn Rajab’s words. The discussion distinguishes linguistic novelty from prohibited religious innovation.
Accordingly, the answer presented here regards the first adhān of Jumuʿah as a legitimate Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs and part of the established practice of the Muslim community.
References
Abū Bakr ʿAbd Allah ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Shaybah, Al-Muṣannaf. Ibn Rajab’s commentary cites the report under number 5441. The original reference 2:370, edited by Kamāl Yūsuf al-Ḥūt, Maktabat ar-Rushd, Riyadh, 1989.
Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī, Fatḥ al-Bārī Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 5:462.
Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī, Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa-l-Ḥikam fī Sharḥ Khamsīn Ḥadīthan min Jawāmiʿ al-Kalim, commentary on hadith 28 page 489, printed 2:493. 2:127–129, edited by Shuʿayb al-Arnāʾūṭ, Muʾassasat ar-Risālah, Beirut, 2001
Ibn Taymiyyah, Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā, 21:319 and 32:347. Arabic checked against the electronic text; the original 1995 King Fahd Qurʾān Printing Complex edition attribution, collected by ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān ibn Qāsim, Abū Dāwūd Sulaymān ibn al-Ashʿath as-Sijistānī’s ؒ (d. 275 AH / 889 CE) Sunan, hadith 4607.
Ibn Taymiyyah, Minhāj as-Sunnah an-Nabawiyyah fī Naqḍ Kalām ash-Shīʿah al-Qadariyyah, reply to the objection concerning ʿUthmān’s additional Friday adhān, electronic text. 2:290, edited by Muḥammad Rashād Sālim, Jāmiʿat al-Imām Muḥammad ibn Saʿūd al-Islāmiyyah, Riyadh, 1986.
Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī ؒ (d. 256 AH / 870 CE), Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, hadith 2010, ʿUmar’s statement concerning the Tarāwīḥ prayer.
