Azaan, incredible medium for the proclamation of Tawheed of Almighty Allah and
Risalat of Muhammed (Peace Be Upon Him), the sound of which echoes around the
globe.
Amazing though its sounds, but fortunately for the Muslims of the world, it is
an established fact, have a look at a map of the world and you will find
Indonesia (an Islamic country) right on the East of the earth’s central land
mass. Indonesia consists of numerous islands, the principal ones amongst them
being Java, Sumatra, Burneo and Sabil, all of which are well known, it is the
largest Islamic country in the world population wise, with 180 million
inhabitants. The number of non-Muslims here is negligible.
As soon as dawn breaks on the Eastern island of Sabil, approximately 5:30am
local time, fajr azaan begins, thousands of muezzins in the Eastern Indonesia
commence proclaiming Tawheed (oneness) of Almighty Allah and Risalat (universal
apostleship) of the Prophet Muahmmed (Peace Be Upon Him).
The process then continues and advances towards the Western islands of
Indonesia. The time difference between the Eastern and Western islands is one
and a half hours. Hence, one and a half hours after it is completed in Sabil, it
echoes in Jakarta on Java Island. Dumarta then follows suit. Before this
auspicious process of calling azaan ends in Indonesia, it has already began in
Malaysia, Burma is the next in line and within an hour of its commencement in
Jakarta, it reaches Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. No sooner the calling
azaan ends in Bangladesh, it has already prevailed in Western India from
Calcutta to Sirinagar. Sialkot (a city in the North of Pakistan) has the same
timing for azaan. The difference between Sialkot, Quetta, Karachi and Gawadar (a
city in Balochistan, a province in Pakistan) is forty minutes and within this
time, Fajr Azaan is heard throughout Pakistan. Before it ends there, however, it
has already begun in Afghanistan and Muscat. The time difference
between Muscat and Baghdad is one hour. Azaan resounds during this one hour in
the environments of Hijaz-e-Maqaddas and Alexandria (or Iskandaria as it is
known in Arabic) in Egypt is again one hour. Alexandria, Ankara and Istanbul
(the principal city of Turkey) are situated on the same geographical longitude.
The time difference between Eastern and Western Turkey is one and a half hour,
and during this time it is echoed with the call to prayer. Alexandria and
Tripoli (the capital of Libya) are located at one-hour difference from one
another. The process of calling Azaan continues throughout the whole of Africa.
Therefore the proclamation of the Oneness of Allah and the Prophet hood of
Muhammed (Peace Be Upon Him) that began in the Eastern parts of Indonesia
reaches the Eastern shores of the Atlantic after nine and a half hours. Prior to
the Azaan reaching to the shores of the Atlantic, the process of Zuhr Azaan has
already commenced in Eastern Indonesia, and before it reaches Dhaka, Asr Azaan
has started. This hardly reaches Jakarta one and a half hours later, than the
time of Maghrib is due, and no sooner has the Magrib time reached Damarta then
the time for calling ‘Esha Azaan has commenced in Sabil!
When the Mu’azzins of Indonesia are calling out Fajr Azaan, the Mu’azzins in
Africa are calling out Azaan for ‘Esha. If we were to ponder over this
phenomenon seriously and studiously, we would conclude the astonishing fact that
there is not a single moment when thousands if not hundreds of thousands of
Mu’azzins around the world are not proclaiming the Oneness of Almighty Allah and
the apostleship of the Noble Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) on the surface of this
Earth!!! InshaAllah, (by the will of Allah, the Almighty) this universal
phenomenon of continuous calling of the Azaan shall not cease until the Day of
Judgment and we should all continue to make du’aa for the same, Ameen.
