and He said:

“So glorify Allah when you reach the evening and when you reach the morning.”

“And to Him belongs all praise in the heavens and the earth.”

Reports coupling the two are numerous.

As for the declaration that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah, it is paired with the proclamation of His greatness, as in the words of the adhan:

“Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest. I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah. I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.”

Then, after calling people to prayer:

“Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest. There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah.”

Thus, its beginning and end contain proclamations of Allah’s greatness and testimony to faith. These are remembrance of Allah Most High, while its middle calls people to prayer and success. Prayer is the deed, and success is its reward. Yet the proclamations of Allah’s greatness come in pairs, while the testimonies come singly: for every two proclamations there is one testimony.

Its beginning contains twice as much as its ending: at the beginning of the adhan, Allah’s greatness is proclaimed four times and the testimonies are recited twice, both testimonies explicitly using the words “I bear witness.” At its end, Allah’s greatness is proclaimed only twice, followed by the declaration that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah, without the words of bearing witness or the other testimony.

This—and Allah knows best—is comparable to the relationship between the first two units of prayer and the last two. The first two are distinguished by the recitation of an additional surah and by reciting aloud. Thus, they are distinguished in both the amount of recitation and its manner, just as the first half of the adhan is distinguished in both the amount of remembrance and its manner. Here, however, the distinction in manner is that the declaration of Allah’s oneness is accompanied by the words “I bear witness.”

For this reason, in the iqāmah (call to commence prayer), according to those who prefer its phrases to be recited singly—which was Bilāl’s form of the iqāmah—the additional repetitions are omitted, just as one lowers