Ibn Mājah and Ahmad likewise relate the narration through Abū Qilāba from Mālik ibn al-Ḥuwayrith. Al-Bukhārī’s wording is adopted, whereas the wording reported by the others—apart from al-Nasāʾī and al-Tirmidhī—runs: “When the time for prayer arrives, pronounce the adhān…” and so forth. This is the exact wording preserved by al-Bukhārī, to which Abū Dāwūd adds, “and at that time we were close in knowledge.”

It is transmitted along the route of Muslimah ibn Muḥammad from Khālid al-Ḥadhdhāʾ. Muslimah, however, is described as “weak in ḥadīth” in al-Taqrīb. Abū Dāwūd and Ahmad also record the report through Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUlayya from Khālid, who said, “I asked Abū Qilāba, ‘What about the Qur’an?’—Ahmad’s version has, ‘the recitation’—and he replied, ‘The two of them were alike.’” Muslim relates it from Ḥafṣ, from Khālid, adding the sentence, “and the two were close,” and in another Muslim version: “they were similar in their recitation.”

A further wording found with the remaining transmitters is: “When the two of you set out on a journey, pronounce the adhān,” and al-Tirmidhī ruled the ḥadīth “ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ.”

The report was discussed at length earlier under the third issue concerning the adhān. It provides evidence that the iqāma, like the adhān, is a communal obligation: once either of the two performs it, the duty falls from the other. The ḥadīth is not to be taken at its surface sense—that both companions should each give both the adhān and the iqāma—as Ibn Ḥajar clarifies in Fatḥ al-Bārī. Rather, the meaning is: “Whoever of you wishes to give the adhān may do so, and whoever wishes to pronounce the iqāma may do so,” because the two were equal in merit. Age is not a consideration in giving the adhān, unlike in leading the prayer. This reading is reinforced by another version of the ḥadīth: “Let one of you give the adhān for the rest of you,” cited previously in the section on the adhān.