What is the ruling on a person who gives the iqaamah for prayer and makes some mistakes in it, such as if he forgets the phrase hayya ‘ala al-salaah, hayya ‘ala al-falaah (come to prayer, come to prosperity)? Please note that the worshippers know that he made a mistake; should they ask him to repeat the iqaamah?.
Praise be to Allaah.
If a person omitted some words of the adhaan or iqaamah
because he forgot them, if only a short time has passed then he should say
what he omitted and complete it from that point. But if a long time has
passed, then he should repeat the adhaan or iqaamah from the beginning.
If he repeats the adhaan or iqaamah in either case, there is
nothing wrong with that.
Al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) said: If he omits
some of the words of that [the adhaan], he should say what was omitted and
what comes after it. But if he starts over, that is better. End quote.
Al-Majmoo’, 3/121
The scholars of the Standing Committee for Issuing Faatwas
were asked: What is the ruling if the muezzin forgets the words
al-salaatu khayrun min al-nawm (prayer is better than sleep) in the
adhaan of Fajr?
They replied:
If the muezzin forgets part of the adhaan, then remembers
whilst he is still saying the adhaan, he should say the words that he forgot
and what comes after them of the words of the adhaan. If he does not
remember until afterwards, then he should repeat the adhaan in full, if
there is no other muezzin around him whose adhaan would fulfil the fard
kifiaayah (communal obligation, i.e., of giving the call to prayer). End
quote.
Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah,
5/61
Shaykh Ibn Jibreen was asked: If the muezzin forgets the
words al-salaatu khayrun min al-nawm (prayer is better than sleep) in
the adhaan of Fajr, should he repeat the adhaan?
He replied:
If he remembers straightaway, he should say al-salaatu
khayrun min al-nawm (prayer is better than sleep). If he does not
remember until after some time has passed, then it is waived, because it is
Sunnah and there is no need to repeat the entire adhaan because of it. End
quote from the Shaykh’s website.
The people of the mosque should have pointed out the
muezzin’s mistake to him so that the words of the iqaamah would be correct.
If they did not do that and the muezzin persisted in this mistake, then the
prayer was valid and we hope that there is no sin on them because of that,
because the iqaamah is Sunnah according to many scholars. Those who regard
it is obligatory — such as Imam Ahmad — say that it is a communal
obligation (fard kifaayah) and this obligation is discharged if there is
another mosque in the same neighbourhood where the adhaan and iqaamah are
said for prayer.
And Allah knows best.
