Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "When the call to prayer is announced, the devil takes to his heels and breaks wind with noise so as not to hear the call. When the call to prayer is over, he returns. When the Iqāmah is announced, he takes to his heels, and after it is over, he returns again to distract the attention of the worshiper and make him remember things which were not on his mind before the prayer, saying: 'Remember such-and-such, and remember such-and-such,' until the worshiper forgets how many units of prayer he performed.”
GradingAuthentic hadith
AttributionNarrated by Bukhari & Muslim
Explanation
When the Muezzin (person who makes the call to prayer) announces the Adhān, the devil runs away from the place where the call to prayer is being made so as not to hear it. "And breaks wind with noise": The apparent meaning is that the devil intentionally lets out this noise, which is passing gas, to avoid listening to the sound of the Muezzin, or as a way of belittling the Adhān as foolish people do. It is also possible that he experiences extreme fear when he hears the call to prayer and, because of his fear, he makes that sound. Another possibility is that he intentionally does this to do the opposite of what is appropriate for prayer, which is the state of purification, by causing "Hadath" (a state of ritual impurity). When the Adhān is finished, he returns. When the Iqāmah is announced, he turns his back, and after it is finished, he returns to distract the attention of the worshiper. The devil first ran away when he heard the call to prayer to avoid listening to the declaration of Oneness of Allah and the other statements of the Adhān which are part of declaring creed and establishing the rituals of Islam. He dislikes to hear Dhikr. This is what is meant by the verse: {from the evil of Al-Waswās al-Khannās (the whisperer who withdraws)} [Sūrat An-Nās: 4]. Al-Khannās means the one who withdraws and disappears when Allah's name is mentioned. Then he comes back to distract the worshiper from focusing on his prayer by saying to him: "Remember this, remember that," which are things that were not on his mind before he started praying. He continues to do that throughout the prayer, until the person loses his concentration on prayer and becomes confused regarding how much of the prayer he has already performed. The devil comes during the prayer, though there is recitation of the Qur'an in it, because the majority of recitation in prayer is done silently, so the devil tries to find his way to corrupt it and destroy the worshiper's focus and humility in it. One opinion held that the reason the devil flees when the call to prayer is announced is to avoid the obligation of bearing witness in favor of the son of Adam on the Day of Judgment, as stated in the Hadīth reported by Abu Sa‘īd.