Muezzin

Encyclopedia : M : MU : MUE : Muezzin

Part of a of articles on Islam     History of Islam

Beliefs and practices

Oneness of God Profession of Faith Prayer • Fasting Pilgrimage • Charity

Major figures

Muhammad • Ali Abu Bakr • Umar Household of Muhammad Companions of Muhammad Prophets of Islam

Texts & Laws

Qur'an • Hadith Jurisprudence • Theology Biographies of Muhammad Esotericism (Sufism) • Exotericism (Sharia)

Branches of Islam

Sunni • Shi'a • Ibadi

Societal aspects

Academics • Theology Philosophy • Science Art • Architecture • Cities Calendar • Holidays Women • ..in the Qu'ran Leaders • Politics Islamism • Liberalism

See also

Vocabulary of Islam This box: [ view] • [ talk] • [ edit]

The müezzin (the word is pronounced this way Turkish, Urdu, etc.; in Arabic: مؤذن) is a servant at the mosque who leads the call (adhan) to Friday service and the five daily prayers, or Salat, from one of the mosque's minarets (in most modern mosques, amplification aids the muezzins).

The professional muezzin is chosen to serve at the mosque for his good character, voice, and skills. When calling to prayer, the muezzin faces each of the four compass directions in turn while he cries out the adhan. During the prayer, the muezzin in some mosques stand on a special platform (called the müezzin mahfili in Turkish), opposite the minbar in the mosque and answer the Imam's sermons.

The person calling out for people to come to the mosque to perform salat, the five-daily prayer of Islam.Traditionally the muezzin calls out the adhan from the minaret, but in more and more mosques there have been put up loudspeakers.The institution of muezzin belongs to the customs of the prophet Muhammad's own time. The first muezzin was Bilal, who walked the streets to call the believers to come to prayer.Large parts of the custom was undecided by the death of Muhammad: Which way one should choose for the calling, where it should be performed.Trumpets, flags and lamps were all elements doing the adhan in the place of the muezzin. Had the development wanted things to go differently, these could all succeeded in replacing him if the debates had ended differently.The activities of the muezzin eventually developed into rituals by themselves. The uttering of the adhan could be heard all over the cities a certain times through the day.The first muezzins were using the roof of the mosque, or the adjacent streets, to call for peoples attention. It is believed that the institution of the muezzin — the public crier — existed in pre-Islamic Arab culture. The acts of the muezzin is also an art form, reflected in melodious chanting of the adhan.

See also: salah, minbar

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.