one’s voice when giving the iqāmah, for these additional repetitions are of the same nature as the original phrases. Omitting them thus resembles omitting the last two units of prayer when travelling. None of the fundamental phrases, however, is omitted. Likewise, the Prophet’s practice—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—in night prayer, the eclipse prayer and other acts of worship was to make the beginning longer than the end, for reasons that call for this.

Just as he combined proclaiming Allah’s greatness with declaring that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah in the adhan, he combined them when proclaiming Allah’s greatness on elevated ground. Thus, on al-Safā and al-Marwah, and whenever he ascended a height during a military expedition, Hajj or ʿumrah, he would proclaim Allah’s greatness three times and say:

“There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah alone, with no partner. His is the dominion and His is all praise, and He has power over all things. There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah alone. He fulfilled His promise, granted victory to His servant, gave might to His army, and defeated the confederates alone.”

He would do this three times. This is reported in the authentic hadith collections. Likewise, when mounted, he proclaimed Allah’s greatness three times and declared that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah three times, thus combining the two.

Similarly, the hadith of ʿAdī ibn Hātim, reported by Ahmad and al-Tirmidhī, relates that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said to him:

“O ʿAdī, what makes you turn away? Does it make you turn away that people should say, ‘There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah’? Do you know of any god besides Allah? O ʿAdī, what makes you turn away? Does it make you turn away that people should say, ‘Allah is the Greatest’? Is there anything greater than Allah?”

Thus, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, paired the declaration that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah with the proclamation of Allah’s greatness.