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Five times a day, in every city with a masjid, somebody stands up and calls the same fifteen lines that have been called since Madinah. The Islamic call to prayer is the adhan, and if you have heard it from a minaret, from a phone app, or from a father in the next room, you have heard the same words the companions heard. Here is what they say, where they came from, and what the Sunnah teaches us to say when we hear them.
The words of the adhan
Allahu Akbar (four times). Allah is the greatest.
Ash-hadu an la ilaha illallah (twice). I bear witness that none has the right to be worshipped except Allah.
Ash-hadu anna Muhammadan rasulullah (twice). I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.
Hayya ‘alas-salah (twice). Come to prayer.
Hayya ‘alal-falah (twice). Come to success.
Allahu Akbar (twice). Allah is the greatest.
La ilaha illallah (once). None has the right to be worshipped except Allah.
For Fajr, the line “As-salatu khayrun minan-nawm,” prayer is better than sleep, is added after “come to success.” It is the line everyone who has heard the Fajr adhan from a hotel window remembers.
Where it came from
In the first year after the migration to Madinah, the Muslims needed a way to gather for prayer. Bells and horns were suggested and set aside. Then a companion, Abdullah ibn Zayd, saw the words of the adhan in a dream, and Umar ibn al-Khattab reported the same dream. The Prophet ﷺ confirmed it and asked Bilal, may Allah be pleased with him, to call it, because of his voice. Bilal, a freed slave from Abyssinia, became the first muadhdhin, and the adhan has been called in his cadence ever since.
What to say when you hear it
The Sunnah is to repeat each line quietly after the muadhdhin, with one exception. When he says “come to prayer” and “come to success,” you say instead:
La hawla wa la quwwata illa billah. There is no might nor power except with Allah.
After the muadhdhin says the shahadah, the Sunnah adds:
Wa ana ash-hadu an la ilaha illallahu wahdahu la sharika lah, wa anna Muhammadan ‘abduhu wa rasuluh. Raditu billahi rabban, wa bi Muhammadin rasulan, wa bil-islami dina. And I too bear witness that none has the right to be worshipped except Allah alone, without partner, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. I am pleased with Allah as a Lord, Muhammad as a Messenger, and Islam as a religion.
The dua after the adhan
When the adhan finishes, send blessings on the Prophet ﷺ and then say the dua he taught, which is in Bukhari:
Arabic
اللَّهُمَّ رَبَّ هَذِهِ الدَّعْوَةِ التَّامَّةِ، وَالصَّلَاةِ الْقَائِمَةِ، آتِ مُحَمَّدًا الْوَسِيلَةَ وَالْفَضِيلَةَ، وَابْعَثْهُ مَقَامًا مَحْمُودًا الَّذِي وَعَدْتَهُ
Transliteration
Allahumma rabba hadhihid-da’watit-tammah, was-salatil-qa’imah, ati Muhammadanil-wasilata wal-fadilah, wab’athhu maqaman mahmudanil-ladhi wa’adtah.
Meaning
O Allah, Owner of this perfect call and of this prayer to be performed, bestow upon Muhammad al-wasilah and al-fadilah, and send him upon the praised platform which You have promised him.
The Prophet ﷺ said that whoever says this after the adhan will have his intercession on the Day of Judgement. The time between the adhan and the iqamah is also a time when dua is not rejected, so make your own dua in the gap.
Hearing it at home
If you do not live within earshot of a masjid, an adhan app on a phone or smart speaker brings it into the house. For children, stopping to say “Allahu Akbar” when it plays is the first step toward the full response, and we have the dua after the adhan as one of the twelve daily remembrances in our Ramadan Planner 2027.
