- He should turn his head to the right when saying: ḥayya ʿala al-ṣalāh (come to prayer) and to the left when saying: ḥayya ʿala al-falāḥ (come to success), without rotating his body.
In the hadith of Abū Juḥayfah he said:
“I came to the Prophet ﷺ in Mecca while he was at al-Abṭaḥ in a red leather tent. Bilāl then came out with the water left over from his ablution; some people took handfuls of it while others only sprinkled themselves. The Prophet ﷺ emerged wearing a red mantle— I can still picture the whiteness of his shins. He performed ablution, and Bilāl called the adhān. I began following his mouth this way and that, noticing him turn right and left as he said: ḥayya ʿala al-ṣalāh, ḥayya ʿala al-falāḥ …” — and so on.
Muslim recorded it through the route of Wakīʿ: narrated to us Sufyān, from ʿAwn ibn Abī Juḥayfah, from his father.
With the same chain, Aḥmad transmitted a similar version.
Abū Dāwūd also narrated it through Qays ibn al-Rabīʿ and Wakīʿ, both from Sufyān, with the wording: “When he reached ḥayya ʿala al-ṣalāh, ḥayya ʿala al-falāḥ, he twisted his neck to the right and to the left but did not turn around …” — the remainder of the report.
Its chain is sound, as al-Nawawī stated.
Al-Nasāʾī likewise reported it from Wakīʿ in an abridged form: “He gave the call to prayer, turning right and left in this manner.”