and it is likewise the practice of the people of the Ḥijāz, who act upon the ḥadith of Abū Maḥdhūrah, for the Prophet ﷺ had taught him that formulation in Mecca.
The Ḥanafīs, by contrast, do not regard it as recommended, arguing from the outward sense of the ḥadith of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Zayd.
Imām Aḥmad allows both options but prefers the adhān of Bilāl. Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr remarks: “Aḥmad, Isḥāq, Dāwūd, and Ibn Jarīr all held that the matter is one of permissible variation: whether a person quadruples, performs tarjiʿ, or doubles the phrases of the adhān while leaving the iqāmah single, or doubles the iqāmah with it, or doubles every phrase of both calls—all of it is acceptable.”

Rulings derived from the ḥadith

1. The obligation of the adhān and the iqāmah, deduced from the Prophet’s ﷺ imperative wording, for an imperative is considered a marfūʿ report. Ibn Ḥajar said: “This is the view of the leading scholars in both camps, the ḥadith specialists and the uṣūl scholars.”
2. The recommendation that the adhān be delivered in even phrases and the iqāmah in odd phrases. Although both calls are obligatory, their varied, well-established descriptions show that every wording transmitted is permissible.
3. Greater concern should be shown for the adhān than for the iqāmah, because it is a summons to those who are farther away.
4. “Evenness” in the adhān applies to all its phrases except the four opening takbīrs and the single declaration of monotheism at the end, which are excluded by other evidence.
5. “Oddness” in the iqāmah applies to all its phrases except the two opening takbīrs and the phrase “qad qāmat aṣ-ṣalāh” (“the prayer has been established”), for other proofs require these two phrases to be paired.

The Second Ḥadith
Abū Juḥayfah Wahb ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Suwaʿī said: “I came to the Prophet ﷺ while he was in a red leather pavilion. Bilāl then emerged carrying the water left over from the Prophet’s ablution, and the people were either sprinkling themselves with it or drinking from it. The Prophet ﷺ came out wearing a red mantle—I can still picture the whiteness of his shins—and performed ablution while Bilāl gave the adhān. I kept following Bilāl’s mouth as he turned it this way and that, to the right and to the left, saying, ‘Come to prayer, come to success.’ A small spear (ʿanaza) was then fixed in the ground for him; he stepped forward and prayed the ẓuhr prayer as two rakʿahs. Thereafter he continued to pray in two-rakʿah units until he returned to Medina.”