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Fatwa CenterThe time interval between first and second Athaan for Friday prayer
Question
How long the difference between 1st and 2nd Azan during Friday prayer?
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
We have already mentioned the ruling of the first Athaan that was introduced by ‘Uthmaan 
in Fatwa 86806. The second Athaan for the Friday prayer is when the Imaam gets on the pulpit, and the first Athaan is before it.
As regards the time interval between them, then some scholars are of the view that the first is when the time of the prayer starts. Al-‘Ayni, in his interpretation of Abu Daawood, said: “Al-Qaadhi Abdul Wahhaab said in Al-Ma’oonah: the Friday prayer has two Athaans, one of them is at the time when the sun is at its meridian [i.e. the time of the beginning of Thuhr prayer], which was the one that was introduced by ‘Uthmaan when the number of people increased very much, and there was a need for more means to inform them, and the second Athaan is when the Imaam sits on the pulpit.”
Ibn Qudaamah 
said in Ash-Sharh Al-Kabeer: “The first Athaan is recommended as soon as the time of the prayer starts, which was made a Sunnah by ‘Uthman and the Muslim Ummah acted in accordance to it after him, and this Athaan is for informing about the beginning of the time of the prayer, and the second is to inform about the Khutbah (Friday sermon), and the third (i.e. the Iqaamah) is to inform about the commencement of the prayer.”
Ibn Hajar said: “Based on the above, it is clear that ‘Uthmaan introduced it in order to inform the people about the beginning of the time of the prayer.” [Fat-h Al-Baari]
Hence, the time difference between the two Athaans would be the time between the beginning of the time of the prayer and the coming of the Imaam who would deliver the Khutbah. This varies from one Imaam to another; some of them do not delay and some of them delay a little bit.
Some contemporary jurists are of the view that the first Athaan is about one hour or 45 minutes or close to that before the second Athaan. This is the view chosen by Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen as he said: “The first Athaan is about one hour or 45 minutes or so before the coming of the Imaam…”. He criticized scrutinizing the time between the two Athaans and said that it is only a few minutes between them. He said: “For many generations, scholars approved that the first Athaan be before the second by 45 minutes or 60 minutes, and the people followed this, so do not scrutinize, let the people follow what they have been following. Even if we assume that it is confirmed that the interval between the first Athaan and the second one at the time of ‘Uthman was five or ten minutes, then the time now is different; Al-Madeenah was then small, smaller than the villages of today, but today Al-Madeenah is a big city and a person needs time to come from the farthest end of the city to the Masjid, so the first Athaan should be called before the second by a time interval that gives people the chance to prepare themselves and come.”
Shaykh Ibn Baaz said nearly the same thing as he estimated the time between them to "half an hour or so, or an hour," as in the Fataawa Noorun ‘Ala Ad-Darb. He also said, "It is appropriate for the first Athaan not to be too far apart from the second so that people would be made aware and come forward to the prayer early before the Imaam who would give the Khutbah enters, and this is before the second Athaan by about half an hour or so."
Allaah Knows best.
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