Muezzin Call

The silent summer night stirs into a vibrant frenzy as the air is filled with the fullness of an early morning prayer. You sit up in bed, put on your spectacles, and reach for a glass of water to cleanse your dry throat. The morning has come earlier than usual, but soon the sun will rise and all feelings of crankiness will give way to a tempered thankfulness for another day of life. A muezzin is the chosen person at a mosque who leads the call to prayer at Friday services and the five daily times for prayer from one of the mosque's minarets. The institution of the muezzin has existed since the time of Muhammad. The first muezzin was Bilal ibn Ribah, who walked the streets to call the believers to come to prayer. Although many of the customs associated with the muezzin remained undecided at the time of Muhammad's death, including which direction one should choose for the calling, where it should be performed, and the use of trumpets, flags or lamps, all of these are elements of the muezzin's role during the adman. After minarets became customary at mosques, the office of muezzin in cities was sometimes given to a blind man, who could not see down into the inner courtyards of the citizen's houses and thus could not violate privacy. The professional muezzin is chosen for his good character, voice and skills to serve at the mosque; he however is not considered a cleric, but in a position rather comparable to a Christian sexton.