Call to Prayer in the Grand Mosque

The Call to Prayer in the Grand Mosque refers to the adhan or call to prayer in the Grand Mosque of Makkah al-Mukarramah. The adhan is heralded by muezzins, who announce the call to prayer, perform iqamah (announce the beginning of prayer), re-echo imams, and raise the call for funeral prayers, as well for prayers of Tarawih and Tahajjud (night prayer), al-Istisqa (Rain) Prayer, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha prayers, and Khusuf and Kusuf (lunar and solar eclipse) prayer.

The Grand Mosque employs main muezzins, each of whom has a special style of calling unto prayer that differs from other muezzins. Each prayer has a designated muezzin for raising the adhan, as well as a concomitant muezzin and a standby muezzin. The muezzin assigned to deliver the call to prayer must be present inside the Mukabbiriya, which conveys the voice of the muezzin throughout the Grand Mosque and beyond via minarets, one hour ahead of the adhan. The muezzin announces the call to prayer, iqamah, and tableegh (echoing the imam in Takbirah al-Ihram, echoing the imam in the initial, kneeling, and prostrating takbirs, as well as the conclusion of prayer, tasleem). The concomitant muezzin, on the other hand, calls for prayers at funerals, whereas the purpose of the standby muezzin is to perform the functions of the main or concomitant muezzins during emergencies.

Muezzins at the Grand Mosque determine prayer times from a bespoke clock in the Grand Mosque, in addition to relying on the Umm al-Qura calendar, and a red-light, automatic alert goes off inside the Mukabbiriya one minute before the adhan time, to give muezzins a chance to prepare themselves for delivery, as well as two more clocks to verify the arrival of adhan time. Furthermore, muezzins have a screen to follow the imam while performing prayers, which they depend on when muezzins cannot hear the imam's voice, besides a screen to follow funerals, and all these screens are operated by main, auxiliary, and emergency batteries.

Muezzins in the Grand Mosque are distributed at six adhan intervals: First adhan for Fajr (dawn) prayer, Second adhan for Fajr prayer, Dhuhr (noon) prayer, ‘Asr (afternoon) prayer, Maghrib (sunset) prayer, and (evening) ‘Ishaa prayer. These intervals are weekly divided among muezzins according to prior agreement and pursuant to an organizational schedule. The adhan of the Grand Mosque indicates the arrival of prayer time for the residents of Makkah al-Mukarramah, particularly for al-Fajr and Maghrib prayers during the month of Ramadan, to identify iftar and imsak times.

Muezzins of the Grand Mosque have a special connection with funerals, as they need to know their numbers and details, through direct communication between the Mukabbiriya and the Grand Mosque’s facilities, as well as cameras of musallas (praying areas outside the Grand Mosque) showing funerals and their numbers, and whether they are for children, women, or men.

Adhan in the Grand Mosque is raised and held by a number of main and designated muezzins, who were approved by the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet's Mosque prior to the establishment of the Presidency of the Religious Affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet's Mosque, which took over the supervision of muezzins.

The Grand Mosque's muezzins include: Ali Bin Ahmed Mullah, Nayef Bin Saleh Fideh, Mohammad Bin Ali Shakir, Majid Bin Ibrahim al-Abbas, Tawfiq Bin Abdulhafiz Khoj, Mohammad Bin Yusuf Muezzin, Farouq Bin Abdulrahman Hadrawi, Issam Bin Ali Khan, Ahmed Bin Younis Khojah, Hamad Bin Mohammad Dughairi, Saeed Bin Omar Fallatah, Mohammad Bin Ahmed Maghribi, Emad Bin Ali Baqri, Hashim Bin Mohammad al-Saqqaf, Hussein Bin Hassan Shahhat, Mohammad Bin Ahmed Bas'aad, Sami Bin Abdulrahim Rayyis, Suhail Bin Abdulmalik Hafez, Abdullah Bin Ahmed Ba‘Afif, Ibrahim Bin Adil Madani, Mohammad Bin Ali al-Omari, Ahmed Bin Ali Nahas, Turki Bin Talal al-Hasani, Atef Ali Mulla, Ahmed Farooq Hadrawi, and Sa'ad Bin Mansour Faqih.