as will be explained in detail in its proper place, and the same principle has already appeared earlier when discussing the different modes of the adhān.

Shaykh Muḥammad Anwar al-Kāshmīrī said in Fayḍ al-Bārī: “In my view, the Sunnah is to respond at times with the ḥayya ʿalā phrases and at other times with the ḥawqalah. The notion that repeating the ḥayya ʿalā after the ḥayya ʿalā might smack of mockery is baseless; every utterance could be so construed only if a person intends mockery—may Allah protect us. Otherwise these are words of goodness, meant to share in the act so that one gains its reward. It is, in a sense, compensation for what the listener missed of the adhān, so he must perform its like to partake in the reward.”

He then adds in a marginal note, after citing Ibn al-Humām’s opinion on “combining”: “For roughly fifteen years I followed what Ibn al-Humām—may Allah have mercy on him—established, combining the two responses when answering the adhān. Later it became clear to me that the intent of the Law is freedom of choice, not combining, and that this is the Sunnah in matters of remembrance. The combination is nothing more than the personal view of Ibn al-Humām and of the ‘Greatest Shaykh.’”

He also said: “At times, when the listener hears the muʾadhdhin reciting the testimony of faith, he may reply, ‘And I too bear witness that there is no deity but Allah alone, without partner, and that Muḥammad is His servant and Messenger. I am pleased with Allah as Lord, with Muḥammad as Messenger, and with Islam as religion.’ Whoever says that will have his sins forgiven.”

This is the ḥadith of Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, who said: “Whoever says, upon hearing the muʾadhdhin…”—and he mentioned the wording above—“…his sins will be forgiven.” Muslim, Abū Dāwūd, and al-Nasāʾī narrated it; Ibn al-Sunnī transmitted it from al-Nasāʾī.