However, that adhan is not meant for the prayer itself; rather, it is only to announce that the time for suḥūr has begun. Likewise, Friday has a first adhan by the Sunnah of ʿUthmān (d. 35 AH), one of the rightly guided caliphs whose practice we have been ordered to follow.

Yet some self-styled sophisticates who claim to be Salafi Sunnis say, “We do not accept the first Friday adhan, for it is an innovation that did not exist in the Prophet’s lifetime.” By saying this they unwittingly impugn the Prophet ﷺ, the rightly guided caliphs, and the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them.

It is an affront to the Messenger ﷺ because he said, “You must hold fast to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the rightly guided caliphs after me,” and by unanimous agreement ʿUthmān is one of those caliphs. It is an affront to the rightly guided caliphs because disparaging ʿUthmān—who is one of them—amounts to disparaging them all, just as denying one messenger is tantamount to denying all the messengers. And it is an affront to the Companions because they did not object to ʿUthmān in this matter; had he erred, they would certainly have objected, just as they did when he completed the prayers at Minā during the Hajj. But in the case of the first Friday adhan they raised no objection at all. So are these contrarian sophisticates really more knowledgeable about Allah’s law and its purposes than the Companions?