Adhan

• In April 2023, the Minneapolis City Council unanimously approved a change to the city’s sound ordinance, effectively eliminating time constraints that previously prevented the pre-dawn and evening prayer calls from being broadcast.
• For the citizens of Minneapolis and for many Muslims across the United States, this represents a historic moment.
• The practice of calling worshippers to prayer is an important aspect of daily Muslim life, one that has a long history on American soil.

Adhan: Tradition and meanings

• The five daily prayers signify one of the five pillars of Islam that are traditionally considered obligatory for every Muslim.
• The significance of the adhan is such that Islamic tradition recommends that it be one of the first sounds that a newborn baby hears.
• The words mark the beginning of a person’s life on the “right path,” with the remembrance of God.

Influence on popular music and culture

• In the process, the adhan has left a deep influence on American music and culture.
• Historian Sylviane A. Diouf attributes the roots of blues music to West African Muslims who were enslaved and forcibly taken to the Americas between the 1600s and mid-1800s.
• Diouf specifically makes a comparison between the adhan and “Levee Camp Holler,” a song that was written and sung by former slaves.

History of the Muslim prayer call in the US

• Generally speaking, mosques in the U.S. make the call to prayer inside the prayer space, where it is audible only to those present.
• The earliest documented public broadcasting of the Muslim call to prayer took place during the World’s Columbian Exposition, a world’s fair that was held in Chicago in 1893.
• Later the same year, the prayer call was broadcast from a third-story window of the Union Square Bank building in New York City.

Recent broadcasts

• In nearby Hamtramck, considered to be America’s first majority-Muslim city, the adhan was legalized by local government in 2004, when a noise ordinance change was put to a citywide vote.
• At the time, this stirred notable tensions between Hamtramck’s different faith communities.
• In 2020, the city council of Paterson, New Jersey, also authorized the call to prayer between certain hours of the day.
• Indeed, the public broadcasting of the adhan is part of a larger narrative of American plurality.

• The competition, which concluded today, won 6 certificates from the Guinness Book of Records.
• It also achieved another record as the largest competition to attract participants in the adhan competition, and two other records as the largest prize pool for a Quran recitation competition and the largest prize pool for a call to prayer (adhan) competition.
• The Iranian contestant Younis Shahmradi won first place in the recitation track, while the Saudi Abdulaziz Al-Faqih won second place and a prize of $533,000.
• The Quran and adhan competition, which comes this year in strategic partnership with the Muslim World League, is one of the international initiatives of the Saudi General Entertainment Authority.

• In the Quran track, Moroccan Abdullah Al-Daghri qualified, and in the Adhan track, Emirati contestant Hamid Al-Raisi qualified.
• The total number of semi-finalists is 16 contestants from 13 countries: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, Britain, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Niger, Germany, and Spain.
• The competition is the largest of its kind in the world in terms of prizes that total $3.3 million.
• The total number of semi-finalists is 16 contestants from 13 countries: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, Britain, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Niger, Germany, and Spain.

• Nizaruldin convinced the jury of his vocal talents and perfect control over his vocal layers.
• So, he got the majority of votes and qualified for the next stage of the competition.
• In the recitation track, the competition witnessed tender and emotional recitations and voices that inspired reverence and reflection.
• The first-place winner in the Quran recitation track gets $ 800,000, while the first-place winner in the adhan track gets $534,000.