UAE Friday sermon: the importance of Adhan and time-bound obligatory prayers

Heed the call to prayer and enter Paradise, the sermon will tell worshippers this week

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This week’s sermon will tell worshippers about a common sound heard five times daily in every Islamic country: the Adhan.

The Adhan, or call to prayer, heralds the beginning of a ­period of a few hours when a specific prayer must be performed. And performing prayers within that time is important.

When someone asked the Prophet which deed is dearest to Allah, he responded: "To offer the prayers at their stated, fixed times."

A true believer is one who pays attention to the Adhan and answers the call to prayer immediately, the sermon will say.

The Adhan begins with Allahu akbar, meaning God is the greatest. It continues with the Shahada, a proclamation that Allah is the only God and Mohammed is His prophet.

According to the Sunnah, a body of literature that prescribes the practices of Islam, Muslims that respond to the call by saying "I too testify that Allah is the only God and Mohammed is his slave and Prophet. I am pleased with Allah as my Lord, with Islam as my religion and Muhammad as a Messenger" will have their sins forgiven by God.

When the muezzin –the one giving the call – says “Hasten unto prayer, hasten unto success,” he is reminding people of the importance of prayer and its value with God by encouraging them to show urgency.

Muslims respond to this particular line from Adhan by saying: "There is no power and no strength except with Allah."

The sermon will say that “hasten unto success” means “hasten unto the way of guidance, the way towards Paradise, the way of everlasting bliss” because the Quran says that those who pray diligently and sincerely will be rewarded in the Afterlife.

The first person to give the call to prayer was Bilal, a former slave freed under Islam.

He was among the first to embrace Islam and became the first ­muezzin.

The sermon will end by calling upon Allah to make all Muslims diligent in their response to the Adhan so they may enter Paradise.