How did the Athan begin? — credits

How the Adhan, Islam's call to prayer, began in Medina: the ideas first proposed, the dream of Abdullah ibn Zayd (ra), the approval and command of the Prophet ﷺ that made it law, and why the voice of Bilal (ra) was chosen to carry it. A hand-made-style paper-collage animation, rendered live in your browser with plain JavaScript and canvas.

Sources for the story

Sahih al-Bukhari 604 and Sahih Muslim 377 (Sahih): on first coming to Medina the Muslims estimated the prayer time with no call; the proposals of a horn and a wooden clapper; Umar's "Why not send a man to call to the prayer?"; "O Bilal, stand and call to the prayer."
Sahih al-Bukhari 606 (Sahih): lighting a fire was also mentioned.
Sunan Abi Dawud 498 (Hasan, al-Albani): the Prophet's ﷺ concern; the flag; "It is from the practice of the Jews" and "of the Christians"; Abdullah ibn Zayd's own words, "between sleep and wakefulness"; Umar's dream twenty days earlier and "I felt shy."
Sunan Abi Dawud 499 (Hasan Sahih, al-Albani): the man carrying a wooden clapper, "Shall I not show you something better than that?", the words of the Adhan and the iqamah; "It is a true vision, if Allah wills… his voice carries further than yours"; Bilal calls; Umar comes out dragging his cloak, "I saw the same as he saw."
Sunan Ibn Majah 706 (Hasan, Darussalam): the wooden clapper was ordered and carved.
Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabaqat (mursal reports): the plain call "as-salatu jami'ah", given as "reportedly"; the timing of Bilal's words to Abu Bakr and his departure for Sham.
Qadi Iyad and al-Nawawi (al-Majmu' 3/75); Ibn Hajar, Fath al-Bari 2/78: Umar's suggestion led to a plain announcement, not yet the Adhan; the Adhan became law by the Prophet's ﷺ approval and command, not by the dream alone; most likely 1 AH, some say 2 AH.
Sunan Ibn Majah 150 (sahih chain: al-Hakim, with al-Dhahabi agreeing): Bilal among the first seven to show Islam openly; those with no protection put in iron armour in the sun; "Ahad, Ahad."
Ibn Ishaq, in Ibn Hisham's Sira: Umayyah ibn Khalaf of Banu Jumah as Bilal's tormentor.
Sahih al-Bukhari 3754 (Sahih): Abu Bakr bought and freed Bilal; Umar: "Abu Bakr is our master, and he freed our master."
Ibn al-Athir, al-Nihaya: a naqus is a long board struck with a shorter one; anda, a voice louder, sweeter or carrying further.
Sunan Abi Dawud 519 (Hasan per al-Albani and Ibn Hajar; weak per al-Nawawi): Bilal's dawn Adhan from the roof of a woman of Banu al-Najjar, one of the tallest by the mosque; his prayer for Quraysh before calling.
Ibn al-Anbari, al-Azhari, Lisan al-'Arab, and al-Nawawi citing the linguists: the meanings of Allahu akbar, ashhadu, hayya and al-falah.
Mujahid on Qur'an 94:4 (Mawsu'at al-Tafsir al-Ma'thur 23/348): "And We raised high your mention": by the Adhan.
Sunan Abi Dawud 500 (Sahih, al-Albani), with Anas's "it is from the Sunnah" report (al-Bayhaqi: sahih chain): "as-salatu khayrun mina-n-nawm" in the dawn call.
Sahih Muslim 385 (Sahih): the listener repeats each phrase, says "la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah" at each hayya, and whoever answers from the heart enters Paradise.
Bukhari 4289 and the reports of 'Urwa, Ibn Abi Mulaykah and others (al-Bayhaqi, Dala'il; Ibn Sa'd): Bilal called the Adhan from the roof of the Ka'ba at the Conquest of Mecca (several reports; no prayer named).
Sunan an-Nasa'i 632 (Hasan Sahih, al-Albani) and Sunan Ibn Majah 708 (Sahih, Darussalam): a group of Meccans mocking the call on the road from Hunayn; "Which of you is the one whose voice I heard rising?"; Abu Mahdhura taught the Adhan with tarji', "Go back and stretch your voice"; his dislike turned into love; "Yes, I have commanded you."
Ibn Sa'd; Ibn 'Abd al-Barr, al-Isti'ab; al-Bayhaqi, al-Sunan al-Kubra 1/615: Abu Mahdhura of Banu Jumah; his descendants kept the Adhan of the Sacred Mosque, and al-Shafi'i heard his great-grandson.
Ibn al-Qayyim, Zad al-Ma'ad 2/355–356: every authentic form of the Adhan is Sunnah.
Sahih al-Bukhari 3755 (Sahih): Bilal to Abu Bakr, "If you bought me for yourself, keep me; if you bought me for Allah, leave me to the work of Allah."
Aslam, Umar's freedman (Abu Dawud, al-Zuhd 262; Ibn 'Asakir 10/471): Bilal's Adhan in Sham and the weeping; Bilal died in Sham in Umar's caliphate, most reports say Damascus around 20 AH (Ibn Sa'd).
al-Tarifi and al-Samhudi, Wafa' al-Wafa: no minarets in the Prophet's ﷺ time; the call from rooftops; al-Baladhuri, Futuh al-Buldan (Basra under Ziyad); al-Kindi, al-Wulat, and al-Maqrizi, al-Khitat (Fustat, 53 AH, "a mighty roar"); Wafa' al-Wafa (the corner towers of the mosque in Medina). No single "first minaret" is claimed.
Sahih al-Bukhari 609 (Sahih): "No jinn, no human, nothing hears the reach of the mu'adhdhin's voice but it will testify for him on the Day of Resurrection."
Prayer times follow the sun, so the call rises somewhere at almost any hour (al-Sha'rawi; safe wording, not "never silent").
The Adhan recording: "ICR Friday Prayer 2nd Adhan, 17 May 2024" by Asim Javed, Internet Archive, CC0 1.0 (a present-day call, cut at phrase boundaries).

Out of respect, the Prophet ﷺ, every prophet and the man in Abdullah ibn Zayd's dream are never depicted, and people are shown only from behind. Other faiths' proposals are shown whole and neutral.

Made with

Narration: Google Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS (voice “Algieba”), directed and edited for this film.
Illustrations: Google Gemini 3.1 Flash Image (backgrounds) and OpenAI GPT Image 2.5 (cut-outs), art-directed and reviewed frame by frame.
Typefaces (SIL Open Font License): Caveat Brush, Caveat, Patrick Hand, Aref Ruqaa.
Animation engine, sound design and mix: written for this series.

Sound

No music is used. All sound effects are CC0 unless noted.

amb_city_dawn_distant — AMB CITY, DAWN, BACKYARD, DISTANT-TRAFFIC, BIRDS (Freesound) by tferrino, CC0 1.0. Edits: source 33.0-57.0 s (after a passing car at 0-5 s and 25-28 s; no voices, horns, sirens, bells or call to prayer in this window, judge + envelope checked); highpass=f=70:poles=2; present-day city at dawn, distant traffic hush and birds; 20 s seamless loop (2 s crossfade), -26 LUFS; 48k/16-bit
amb_creek_flowing — WATRFlow-Ext_Small FLowing Creek_HvD_OwSFX_Loop (Freesound) by Hano_van_Dalen, CC0 1.0. Edits: source 10.0-70.0 s; highpass=f=60:poles=2; small flowing creek (the full wadi river); 40 s seamless loop, -24 LUFS; 48k/16-bit
amb_dawn_birds_soft — #210091 "room small night" by Yuval, CC0 1.0; #331511 "5am_voegel_abudhabi_park.flac" by nikitralala, CC0 1.0. Edits: room hush 325-373 s (HPF 50, LPF 9 kHz) + birds 14-62 s (HPF 1.2 kHz, -12 dB under the hush; the source's later distant Athan at 2:40+ is not used); each looped, 45 s seamless loop (2 s crossfade), -26 LUFS
amb_desert_dusk_wind — #666175 "Wind in dry tall grass bulrush type, close recording with muffled air sometimes, gust of wind, far away tree, recorded in Arivaca Road desert in Arizona" by felix.blume, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 92.0-114.5 s; HPF 100 Hz; 20 s seamless loop (2 s crossfade), -26 LUFS
amb_desert_wind_gentle — Looping Gentle Wind Ambience on an Open Desert Plain.wav (Freesound) by dhallcomposer, CC0 1.0. Edits: source 2.0-38.0 s; highpass=f=50:poles=2; gentle dry wind on an open desert plain (Hijaz wadi, dusk); 30 s seamless loop, -24 LUFS; 48k/16-bit
amb_harrah_noon_wind — #457159 "Desert binaural Wind.WAV" by Benbojangles, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 692.00-756.00 s (steadiest stretch); HPF 60 Hz + 130 Hz (removes traffic-like mic rumble); -26 LUFS, 2 s fade-in/3 s fade-out (not a seamless loop)
amb_jm_lane_quiet — #653946 "Quiet breeze with bird singing softly, insect noises, a horse neighs far sometimes" by felix.blume, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 25.0-49.0 s (no horse/insect buzz in this window); HPF 150 Hz x2; 22 s seamless loop (2 s crossfade), -24 LUFS
amb_kaaba_court_open — Monastery ruins_3(birds, pigeons, wings, wind).wav (Freesound) by o_ciz, CC0 1.0. Edits: source 31.0-55.0 s (no crow caw or tapping in this window); highpass=f=90:poles=2, lowpass=f=8000:poles=2; open stone court in light wind with distant doves, no crowd or voices (the Ka'ba court, 8 AH); 20 s seamless loop (2 s crossfade), -26 LUFS; 48k/16-bit. The source is quiet (about -63 dBFS), so the loop carries a soft air/hiss floor: keep it at -28 dB or lower
amb_night — #522299 "Crickets At Night - Raw sound" by Defelozedd94, CC0 1.0; #165526 "Wind singing in the mountain, some night cricket in background" by felix.blume, CC0 1.0. Edits: mixed 55/45 (RMS matched), 20 s seamless loop (2 s crossfade), -26 LUFS
amb_palm_orchard_breeze — #423800 "Wind through Palm Trees.wav" by klangfabrik, CC0 1.0; #517526 "dove calling with out other side noise" by idreesbari, CC0 1.0. Edits: palm wind src 4.0-78.5 s, HPF 120 Hz, LPF ~4.2 kHz, -3 dB high shelf, -4 dB at 560 Hz; 72 s seamless loop (2.5 s crossfade) with slow loop-periodic ±4 dB swells that darken in the lulls; 3 laughing-dove phrases (src 0.60-1.75, 6.15-7.60, 17.50-18.90 s; band-limited 250 Hz-3 kHz, short diffuse echo) placed at 11.0 / 34.5 / 55.0 s; -24 LUFS. Made for fasting-monday-thursday (Madinah palm orchard, late morning)
amb_palm_wind — #423800 "Wind through Palm Trees.wav" by klangfabrik, CC0 1.0. Edits: source 35-83 s; HPF 120 Hz (removes mic buffeting); 45 s seamless loop (2 s crossfade), -24 LUFS
amb_predawn_room — #210091 "room small night" by Yuval, CC0 1.0. Edits: source 270-323 s (clean stretch, no footsteps); HPF 50 Hz, LPF 9 kHz; 50 s seamless loop (2 s crossfade), -26 LUFS
amb_quiet_room_day — #837996 "windy roomtone ile callot" by bruno.auzet, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 190.0-216.0 s; HPF 40 Hz, LPF 14 kHz; 24 s seamless loop (2 s crossfade), -26 LUFS
athan_2 — ICR Friday Prayer 2nd Adhan 17th May 2024 (9th Dhul Qadah 1445) by Asim Javed (Internet Archive), CC0 1.0. Edits: full file; trimmed (final t = source t - 0.000 s), 70 Hz high-pass, -16 LUFS, fades, 48k/16-bit stereo
athan_2_allahu_akbar_open — ICR Friday Prayer 2nd Adhan 17th May 2024 (9th Dhul Qadah 1445) by Asim Javed (Internet Archive), CC0 1.0. Edits: source 0.0-5.2 s; trimmed (final t = source t - 0.000 s), 70 Hz high-pass, -16 LUFS, fades, 48k/16-bit stereo
sfx_card_thud — #824385 "Softcover book hitting table" by nyxlitten, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 3.80-4.25 s; HPF 60 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_cloth_swish_1 — #391448 "Shirt Whoosh 1.wav" by saturdaysoundguy, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 6.70-7.40 s; HPF 80 Hz,FFT denoise 10 dB (floor -72); trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_dream_shimmer_short — synthesized for this series: Same engine, 1.6 s dense sparkle sting.
sfx_jm_steps_sandals — #637558 "footsteps walking flip flops sandals dirt.flac" by kyles, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 1.75-5.35 s (6 steps); HPF 60 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_needle_punch_1 — #188178 "Sewing/stitching up some fabric" by pfranzen, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.05-0.30 s; HPF 150 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_needle_punch_2 — #188178 "Sewing/stitching up some fabric" by pfranzen, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 1.85-2.12 s; HPF 150 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_needle_punch_3 — #188178 "Sewing/stitching up some fabric" by pfranzen, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 2.20-2.44 s; HPF 150 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_page_turn_1 — #136778 "Page Turn" by davidbain, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.00-1.98 s; HPF 80 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_paper_rustle_1 — #181774 "rustling paper.wav" by keweldog, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.30-2.55 s; HPF 80 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_paper_rustle_2 — #181774 "rustling paper.wav" by keweldog, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 2.50-4.45 s; HPF 80 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_paper_rustle_3 — #449127 "Rustling Paper" by HarpyHarpHarp, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 1.45-2.15 s; HPF 80 Hz,FFT denoise 10 dB (floor -60); trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_paper_rustle_4 — #449127 "Rustling Paper" by HarpyHarpHarp, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 5.70-6.41 s; HPF 80 Hz,FFT denoise 10 dB (floor -60); trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_paper_rustle_5 — #211246 "PageRustle" by Tomoyo Ichijouji, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.10-1.90 s; HPF 80 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_paper_slide_1 — #464302 "PaperSlide.wav" by eyesonlegs, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.00-1.64 s; HPF 60 Hz,FFT denoise 10 dB (floor -55); trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_paper_slide_2 — #444431 "Sliding Envelope.wav" by MTJohnson, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.20-1.10 s; HPF 80 Hz; trim, fades, peak -3 dBFS
sfx_paper_tear_1 — #272028 "Ripping Paper" by aldenroth2, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.00-1.96 s; HPF 60 Hz,FFT denoise 8 dB (floor -60); trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_paper_tear_2 — #342541 "Fast Paper Rip" by sgrowe, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.00-0.89 s; HPF 60 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_paper_tear_3 — #170311 "Tearing paper" by ludde44, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.20-1.52 s; HPF 60 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_pen_tick_1 — #85703 "Pencil_scibble.aif" (via house `sfx_pencil_scribble_2.wav`) by tmkappelt, CC0 1.0. Edits: one tick cut from sfx_pencil_scribble_2 at 0.545-0.785 s; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_pencil_scribble_1 — #257518 "Scribble_short.wav" by waldram, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.00-1.27 s; HPF 150 Hz,FFT denoise 12 dB (floor -50); trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_pencil_scribble_2 — #85703 "Pencil_scibble.aif" by tmkappelt, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.00-3.20 s; HPF 150 Hz,FFT denoise 12 dB (floor -62); trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_rooster_crow_1 — #435508 "Rooster Crow 1" by BenjaminNelan, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.00-2.16 s; HPF 150 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_stamp_thump_2 — #470710 "traditional stamp.wav" by I.fekry, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.40-1.20 s; HPF 40 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_thread_pull_1 — #646586 "Sewing cloth.wav" by heifabaisi, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 92.55-93.30 s; HPF 100 Hz,FFT denoise 10 dB (floor -60); trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_thread_pull_2 — #646586 "Sewing cloth.wav" by heifabaisi, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 29.15-30.10 s; HPF 100 Hz,FFT denoise 10 dB (floor -60); trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
sfx_tick — synthesized for this series: A short synthesized key click for typing in the Qaf app screen (made for this series). Non-instrumental.
sfx_water_drip — Water Drip Free (Freesound) by AardsReal, CC0 1.0. Edits: source 0.0-0.72 s; highpass=f=120:poles=2; single water drip; 48k/16-bit
sfx_whoosh_soft_synth — synthesized for this series: White noise through a time-varying log-Gaussian band-pass sweeping 300 Hz -> 2.2 kHz, swell envelope, slow L->R pan.