the particle faʾ indicates sequential order. This is stated explicitly in several ḥadiths, among them what al-Nasaʾī reports from Umm Salamah: the Prophet ﷺ “would repeat the words of the mu’adhdhin whenever the caller paused.”
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One should answer the mu’adhdhin in every circumstance—unless he is in the lavatory or relieving himself—because any remembrance that has a specific cause ought not be neglected, lest it be missed when its cause disappears.
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The outward sense of the ḥadith is that the listener repeats everything the mu’adhdhin says throughout the adhān. The majority of scholars, however, hold that when the caller says ḥayya ʿala al-ṣalāh and ḥayya ʿala al-falāḥ the respondent instead says, “lā ḥawla wa-lā quwwata illā bi-llāh,” as related in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim from ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb: “Then he said, ḥayya ʿala al-ṣalāh, and he replied, lā ḥawla wa-lā quwwata illā bi-llāh; then he said, ḥayya ʿala al-falāḥ, and he replied, lā ḥawla wa-lā quwwata illā bi-llāh.”
The formula ḥayʿalah (1) does not suit the listener; what suits him is the ḥawqalah (2). When the mu’adhdhin summons them, therefore, they respond, “lā ḥawla wa-lā quwwata illā bi-llāh,” meaning: with His help and support we come to the prayer and perform it.
Benefit:
Al-Bukhārī records in his Ṣaḥīḥ, from Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allah, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Whoever says, upon hearing the call, ‘O Allah, Lord of this perfect call and of the prayer soon to be established, grant Muhammad the means and virtue, and raise him to the praised station You have promised him,’ my intercession will be permitted for him on the Day of Resurrection.”