Leaving the mosque after hearing the unified call to prayer

A question about leaving the mosque after hearing the unified call to prayer, in which Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyya answered that the unified adhan is permissible and counts as the adhan of every mosque the broadcast covers, so leaving after it and before the iqama without an excuse is disliked, while leaving for an excuse or need is allowed without dislike. ¹

The questioner asked: what is the ruling on leaving the mosque after hearing the unified call to prayer? ¹

Dar al-Ifta began with the merit of the adhan and the reward of muezzins, the adhan being one of the rites of Islam and the announcement that the prayer time has entered, citing the agreed-upon hadith of Abu Hurayra that if people knew what lies in the call and the first row they would draw lots for them, with Ibn Rajab's explanation in his Fath al-Bari (5/286). ¹ It then explained that the purpose of the adhan is to inform people that the time has entered, by the agreed-upon hadith of Malik ibn al-Huwayrith that when the prayer is due one of you should call it, and that as mosques multiplied and drew close together in Muslim lands this became a source of confusion, overlapping muezzins' voices and discrepancies in the time of the call in one place, so the authorities in several countries, Egypt among them, unified the adhan; the Ministry of Endowments' scheme is a live adhan given by one muezzin after the time has entered and relayed by modern means to all the mosques, and this form is permissible in sharia because its purpose, announcing the time, is achieved on an even wider scale. ¹ It cited the report of Alqama in al-Bayhaqi that Ibn Mas'ud led him and al-Aswad in prayer without adhan or iqama, saying the neighbourhood's adhan and iqama sufficed them; the report of Bukayr ibn al-Ashajj in al-Daraqutni and Abu Dawud's Marasil that there were nine mosques in Medina besides the Prophet ﷺ's whose people heard Bilal's call and prayed in their own mosques; and the jurists' statements: Siraj al-Din ibn Nujaym in al-Nahr al-Fa'iq (1/171) that when the people of a quarter hear the adhan, even from another quarter, the duty lapses from them; Ibn Qudama in al-Mughni (3/303) reporting Ibn Aqil that one adhan suffices for a quarter and Ahmad that the town's adhan suffices one praying at home; and al-Mardawi in al-Insaf (3/54) that one muezzin suffices for a town so long as its people come to know. It added that relaying the adhan by machines adds nothing to it and takes nothing from it, being merely a carrying of the voice. ¹ It required, for the unified adhan to be permissible, that it be live, given by the muezzin after the time of the obligatory prayer has entered and not recorded; that time differences between quarters of one city be respected; and that its organisation be left to the responsible authorities such as the Ministry of Endowments. ¹

Dar al-Ifta then ruled that the hadiths forbidding leaving the mosque after hearing the adhan cover the unified adhan, because once it is established, the adhan raised from the central mosque counts as the adhan of every mosque the broadcast covers, so hearing it there carries the same consequence of preparing for prayer, and the ruling on leaving after it is the same as on leaving after hearing the muezzin. ¹ It noted the jurists' agreement that leaving after the adhan and before the iqama is allowed without dislike for an excuse, such as having already prayed alone, being the imam of another mosque, wishing to catch the prayer in another mosque, or attending a lesson of knowledge, by the hadith of Abu Hurayra (may God be pleased with him) in Sahih al-Bukhari that the Prophet went out after the prayer had been called, bathed and returned, with Zakariyya al-Ansari's remark in Minhat al-Bari (2/356) that the prohibition on leaving concerns one with no need. ¹ On leaving without excuse it set out the disagreement: most Malikis, Shafi'is and some Hanbalis hold it disliked, as do the Hanafis, who specify prohibitive dislike and except one who has prayed the noon or night prayer alone and leaves before the iqama begins, as Ibn Nujaym says in al-Bahr al-Ra'iq (2/78), citing the hadith in Ibn Majah about one who hears the adhan in the mosque and leaves without need and Abu Hurayra's remark that such a man has disobeyed Abu al-Qasim; al-Hattab in Mawahib al-Jalil (1/467) explains that Ibn Abd al-Barr's words 'it is not lawful' mean dislike, leaving being forbidden only once the iqama is given; al-Imrani in al-Bayan (2/84) and al-Mardawi in al-Insaf (1/428) agree. The Hanbalis in the correct view of their school, and Ibn Hazm, hold leaving after the adhan and before the prayer forbidden without an excuse, as Ibn Qudama says in al-Mughni (1/296–297) and Ibn Hazm in al-Muhalla (2/183). ¹

Dar al-Ifta concluded that the unified adhan raised from the central mosque is permissible in sharia and counts as the adhan of all the mosques the broadcast covers, so hearing it calls for preparing for prayer; leaving the mosque after it and before the iqama without an excuse is disliked, but leaving for an excuse or need, such as being the imam of another mosque who wishes to catch the prayer there, or attending a lesson of knowledge, is allowed without dislike. ¹

Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyya published this fatwa on dar-alifta.org as no. 8777, dated 7 October 2025, in the category of prayer, among the fatwas of the Grand Mufti Nazir Muhammad Ayyad. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.