during the first part of the night and spend its latter part in worship. Then, if he desired his wife, he would satisfy his desire, then sleep. When it was time for the first call to prayer”—she said—“he would spring up; and no, by Allah, she did not say, ‘he would rise.’ He would pour water over himself; and no, by Allah, she did not say, ‘he would bathe.’ If he was not in a state of major ritual impurity, he would perform ablution as a man does for prayer, then pray the two rak'ahs.” (1)

What she meant by her words, “when it was time for the first call to prayer,” was undoubtedly the Fajr adhān. It was called the first in relation to the iqāmah, as the Prophet ﷺ said: “Between every two calls to prayer there is a prayer.” (2) What is meant by the two calls is the adhān and the iqāmah. In Sahih al-Bukhari it is stated: “Uthman added the third adhān to the Friday prayer.” (3) It is well known that Friday prayer has two adhāns and an iqāmah, yet he called it a third adhān. Thus, the difficulty is resolved: tathwīb is to be said in the adhān for the Fajr prayer.

They also argued: He said, “Prayer is better than sleep,” and this indicates that what is intended by the first adhān is the one before dawn, owing to his saying, “Prayer is better than sleep”—that is, the tahajjud prayer, not the obligatory prayer—since there is no comparison between the obligatory prayer and sleep, and describing something as better belongs only to the context of encouragement. They therefore said: This too supports the view that the intended adhān is the adhān at the end of the night.