Abu Mahdhurah

ProfileAbu Mahdhurah

Abu Mahdhurah (may Allah be pleased with him) was of the clan of Jumah of Quraysh. His own name is disputed. According to the early biographies, it was Samurah ibn Mi'yar, and some say Aws or Salamah.

Abu Mahdhurah told, in the account that Abdullah ibn Muhayriz, who was an orphan in his care, asked him for before going to Syria, that he went out with a group of people, and on the road to Hunayn, as the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was coming back from it, the Prophet's ﷺ muezzin called the adhan in the Prophet's ﷺ presence. They did not care for it, and began to shout and imitate it, mocking it. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ heard them, and sent for them, and had them stand before him. He asked which of them had the loud voice that he had heard. They all pointed to him, and they spoke the truth. The Prophet ﷺ sent the others away, and kept him, and told him to stand and call the adhan. He said that there was nothing more hateful to him than the Prophet ﷺ and what he told him to do. But he stood before the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ himself taught him the call, phrase by phrase, and told him to repeat the testimonies in a raised voice. When he had finished, the Prophet ﷺ called him and gave him a bundle with some silver in it. He asked, "O Messenger of Allah, let me be the one who calls the adhan in Makkah." The Prophet ﷺ said that he commanded him to do so, and he went to Attab ibn Asid, the Prophet's ﷺ governor in Makkah, and called the adhan with him by the orders of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ (Sunan an-Nasa'i, graded hasan; a similar account in Sunan Ibn Majah).

Abu Mahdhurah also told that he asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to teach him the way of the adhan, and the Prophet ﷺ wiped his forehead, and taught him (Sunan Abi Dawud, graded sahih). Abu Mahdhurah told that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ taught him the adhan with nineteen phrases and the iqamah with seventeen (Sunan Abi Dawud, graded hasan sahih; Jami at-Tirmidhi, graded sahih). According to the early biographies, he said that he had hated the Prophet ﷺ before that, and that after the Prophet's ﷺ hand was on his head and chest, and he prayed for him, the Prophet ﷺ became the dearest of people to him.

According to the early biographies, he stayed in Makkah as its muezzin for the rest of his life, in the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ and after, and had a beautiful voice, so that people asked him to repeat it. According to the early biographies, he never cut the part of his hair that the Prophet ﷺ had touched, or parted it, and the adhan of Makkah stayed with his children and their children for generations.

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