The fajr call to prayer
Jan 19th 2018, 5:41 pm
#1
BE Forum Addict
Thread Starter
Joined: Oct 2015
Location: Abu Dhabi via Barcelona
Posts: 1,478
The fajr call to prayer
(Welcome back....)
I moved, I now live around a 5 minute walk to a mosque, no problem except the shop next to it charged me 14.50 deposit on the big bottle of water.
Anyway, the 5am (fajr) call to prayer is so loud, it wakes me up - and, even worse, on a Friday it also wakes the wife, the cat and probably the goldfish too.
I'm hoping I get used to it.
Gotta love some countries.
Have you missed me?
I moved, I now live around a 5 minute walk to a mosque, no problem except the shop next to it charged me 14.50 deposit on the big bottle of water.
Anyway, the 5am (fajr) call to prayer is so loud, it wakes me up - and, even worse, on a Friday it also wakes the wife, the cat and probably the goldfish too.
I'm hoping I get used to it.
Gotta love some countries.
Have you missed me?
Jan 19th 2018, 6:12 pm
#2
Excess Baggage
Joined: Jul 2006
Location: UK
Posts: 5,479
Re: The fajr call to prayer
I was on the rooftop at my hotel by SZR today, catching some rays and chillin' by the pool as you do, and the call to prayer that went out at lunchtime went on and on and on and on. I guess it's a Friday thing.
Jan 20th 2018, 5:39 am
#3
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 3,520
Re: The fajr call to prayer
(Welcome back....)
I moved, I now live around a 5 minute walk to a mosque, no problem except the shop next to it charged me 14.50 deposit on the big bottle of water.
Anyway, the 5am (fajr) call to prayer is so loud, it wakes me up - and, even worse, on a Friday it also wakes the wife, the cat and probably the goldfish too.
I'm hoping I get used to it.
Gotta love some countries.
Have you missed me?
I moved, I now live around a 5 minute walk to a mosque, no problem except the shop next to it charged me 14.50 deposit on the big bottle of water.
Anyway, the 5am (fajr) call to prayer is so loud, it wakes me up - and, even worse, on a Friday it also wakes the wife, the cat and probably the goldfish too.
I'm hoping I get used to it.
Gotta love some countries.
Have you missed me?
Jan 20th 2018, 8:18 am
#4
peterparker
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 196
Re: The fajr call to prayer
You should get used to it - once lived right next to very loud mosque but got to sleep right through quite soon.
Jan 21st 2018, 3:59 am
#5
...we killed the flame
Joined: Jan 2017
Location: Dubai
Posts: 1,086
Re: The fajr call to prayer
So please allow me one more opportunity to educate IKN on another usually completely misunderstood aspect of local life here that seems to never penetrate the expat bubble.
In Dubai, mosques are allowed to broadcast the prayer itself as well as the azhan. Broadcasting the prayer, of course, has no tradition in Islam and only dates to the arrival of loudspeaker technology. In Abu Dhabi they are not allowed to broadcast prayer at all, only the azhan. In the city of AD, there is a synchronised azhan so that you don't have the duelling loudspeakers effect that you get in Dubai and many cities in the region.
The azhan lasts only about 1 minute and is performed by a muezzin who usually has a voice trained for this. He used to climb the minaret to do it; now he probably records it from his workers' camp accommodation. The azhan is therefore often pleasant and musical. The prayer, by contrast, is performed by an imam who is usually a Yemeni or Egyptian, riven with all sorts of status and economic resentments that are unfortunately all too audible in their vocally untrained shrieking. This harshness is invariably amplified by the hideous tinny sound system used.
Fajr is of course the issue, as this is the dawn prayer and the one most likely to keep you awake. It goes on for about 15 minutes with a break in the middle. The break is the cruellest part because it just about allows you to nod back off again before the cacophony resumes to jolt you from your slumber to realise finally that sleep is a lost cause...
Even if you don't want to move to AD, you are entitled to pursue the issue. Mosques are not supposed to disturb their local communities and interestingly you will usually find the ones in areas where locals live are the quietest. So you can try and speak to somebody at the mosque but that takes some cojones and also it can be pretty difficult to find somebody who is actually in charge of anything (a prominent member of the congregation using the mosque would be your best bet). Imams are generally low-paid low-status government employees and often won't speak much English so, even if you can find the offending party, you may not get any joy from him. But it could be a culturally enlightening experience from which IKN could seriously benefit.
Alternatively contact your building/estate management. They are supposed to follow up on these complaints. Or you can go directly to the Ministry of Awqaf & Islamic Affairs. Look up their number online. If you can get the phone answered, they are usually very pleasant (one lady once kept charmingly addressing me as "my bruzzer"). They may try to bounce you back to your building/estate managers though. Insist and they will follow up and then text you later to check if you are happy with their service. They will be quite receptive to a complaint about prayer volume in particular.
One thing though: in order for Awqaf to follow up on a complaint, you must have the name of the mosque, which you may have to dig around to find but it will have a specific name (could be named after a person or an area or some abstraction etc.). Just the location is not enough.
After many years of battling with the mosque, which arrived in my heavily non-muslim area well after I did, I have found an approach that results in the greatest level of satisfaction. I have developed a technique of sleeping on my side with one ear buried in the pillow underneath and the other ear covered by another pillow that I hold against the other side of my head - also deals with the bf's snoring....
Last edited by Miss Ann Thrope; Jan 21st 2018 at 4:41 am. Reason: punctuation imprecision: gasp!
Jan 21st 2018, 4:55 am
#8
Excess Baggage
Joined: Jul 2006
Location: UK
Posts: 5,479
Re: The fajr call to prayer
That's because it's not the call to prayer (the Azhan), it's the prayer itself, which on Friday, especially, does go on and on.
So please allow me one more opportunity to educate IKN on another usually completely misunderstood aspect of local life here that seems to never penetrate the expat bubble.
In Dubai, mosques are allowed to broadcast the prayer itself as well as the azhan. Broadcasting the prayer, of course, has no tradition in Islam and only dates to the arrival of loudspeaker technology. In Abu Dhabi they are not allowed to broadcast prayer at all, only the azhan. In the city of AD, there is a synchronised azhan so that you don't have the duelling loudspeakers effect that you get in Dubai and many cities in the region.
The azhan lasts only about 1 minute and is performed by a muezzin who usually has a voice trained for this. He used to climb the minaret to do it; now he probably records it from his workers' camp accommodation. The azhan is therefore often pleasant and musical. The prayer, by contrast, is performed by an imam who is usually a Yemeni or Egyptian, riven with all sorts of status and economic resentments that are unfortunately all too audible in their vocally untrained shrieking. This harshness is invariably amplified by the hideous tinny sound system used.
Fajr is of course the issue, as this is the dawn prayer and the one most likely to keep you awake. It goes on for about 15 minutes with a break in the middle. The break is the cruellest part because it just about allows you to nod back off again before the cacophony resumes to jolt you from your slumber to realise finally that sleep is a lost cause...
Even if you don't want to move to AD, you are entitled to pursue the issue. Mosques are not supposed to disturb their local communities and interestingly you will usually find the ones in areas where locals live are the quietest. So you can try and speak to somebody at the mosque but that takes some cojones and also it can be pretty difficult to find somebody who is actually in charge of anything (a prominent member of the congregation using the mosque would be your best bet). Imams are generally low-paid low-status government employees and often won't speak much English so, even if you can find the offending party, you may not get any joy from him. But it could be a culturally enlightening experience from which IKN could seriously benefit.
Alternatively contact your building/estate management. They are supposed to follow up on these complaints. Or you can go directly to the Ministry of Awqaf & Islamic Affairs. Look up their number online. If you can get the phone answered, they are usually very pleasant (one lady once kept charmingly addressing me as "my bruzzer"). They may try to bounce you back to your building/estate managers though. Insist and they will follow up and then text you later to check if you are happy with their service. They will be quite receptive to a complaint about prayer volume in particular.
One thing though: in order for Awqaf to follow up on a complaint, you must have the name of the mosque, which you may have to dig around to find but it will have a specific name (could be named after a person or an area or some abstraction etc.). Just the location is not enough.
After many years of battling with the mosque, which arrived in my heavily non-muslim area well after I did, I have found an approach that results in the greatest level of satisfaction. I have developed a technique of sleeping on my side with one ear buried in the pillow underneath and the other ear covered by another pillow that I hold against the other side of my head - also deals with the bf's snoring....
So please allow me one more opportunity to educate IKN on another usually completely misunderstood aspect of local life here that seems to never penetrate the expat bubble.
In Dubai, mosques are allowed to broadcast the prayer itself as well as the azhan. Broadcasting the prayer, of course, has no tradition in Islam and only dates to the arrival of loudspeaker technology. In Abu Dhabi they are not allowed to broadcast prayer at all, only the azhan. In the city of AD, there is a synchronised azhan so that you don't have the duelling loudspeakers effect that you get in Dubai and many cities in the region.
The azhan lasts only about 1 minute and is performed by a muezzin who usually has a voice trained for this. He used to climb the minaret to do it; now he probably records it from his workers' camp accommodation. The azhan is therefore often pleasant and musical. The prayer, by contrast, is performed by an imam who is usually a Yemeni or Egyptian, riven with all sorts of status and economic resentments that are unfortunately all too audible in their vocally untrained shrieking. This harshness is invariably amplified by the hideous tinny sound system used.
Fajr is of course the issue, as this is the dawn prayer and the one most likely to keep you awake. It goes on for about 15 minutes with a break in the middle. The break is the cruellest part because it just about allows you to nod back off again before the cacophony resumes to jolt you from your slumber to realise finally that sleep is a lost cause...
Even if you don't want to move to AD, you are entitled to pursue the issue. Mosques are not supposed to disturb their local communities and interestingly you will usually find the ones in areas where locals live are the quietest. So you can try and speak to somebody at the mosque but that takes some cojones and also it can be pretty difficult to find somebody who is actually in charge of anything (a prominent member of the congregation using the mosque would be your best bet). Imams are generally low-paid low-status government employees and often won't speak much English so, even if you can find the offending party, you may not get any joy from him. But it could be a culturally enlightening experience from which IKN could seriously benefit.
Alternatively contact your building/estate management. They are supposed to follow up on these complaints. Or you can go directly to the Ministry of Awqaf & Islamic Affairs. Look up their number online. If you can get the phone answered, they are usually very pleasant (one lady once kept charmingly addressing me as "my bruzzer"). They may try to bounce you back to your building/estate managers though. Insist and they will follow up and then text you later to check if you are happy with their service. They will be quite receptive to a complaint about prayer volume in particular.
One thing though: in order for Awqaf to follow up on a complaint, you must have the name of the mosque, which you may have to dig around to find but it will have a specific name (could be named after a person or an area or some abstraction etc.). Just the location is not enough.
After many years of battling with the mosque, which arrived in my heavily non-muslim area well after I did, I have found an approach that results in the greatest level of satisfaction. I have developed a technique of sleeping on my side with one ear buried in the pillow underneath and the other ear covered by another pillow that I hold against the other side of my head - also deals with the bf's snoring....
Very informative, thanks.
It makes sense now. The initial singing of Allah u Akhbar (which can be quite pleasant on the ear when the guy has a good singing voice) was replaced with a spoken (almost shouted) stream of words. The mosque is right next to my hotel, but I barely hear it in the morning as my room faces an inner courtyard.
Jan 21st 2018, 5:08 am
#9
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Jan 2011
Location: Dubai
Posts: 3,467
Re: The fajr call to prayer
This is the first thing I check out before going to look at a apartment, where is the nearest mosque.
Currently I am equidistant between 3 but they are all of sufficient distance that the call to prayer is not too loud and if I am honest I rarely hear it. During ramadan they all crank them up a bit and so you can hear Mr Shouty going for it but again its not too bad.
Thankfully I am blessed with the ability to sleep through pretty much anything..... hence my living in Mirdif for several years. I don't even acknowledge the planes anymore.
Currently I am equidistant between 3 but they are all of sufficient distance that the call to prayer is not too loud and if I am honest I rarely hear it. During ramadan they all crank them up a bit and so you can hear Mr Shouty going for it but again its not too bad.
Thankfully I am blessed with the ability to sleep through pretty much anything..... hence my living in Mirdif for several years. I don't even acknowledge the planes anymore.
Jan 21st 2018, 5:34 am
#10
...we killed the flame
Joined: Jan 2017
Location: Dubai
Posts: 1,086
Re: The fajr call to prayer
This is the first thing I check out before going to look at a apartment, where is the nearest mosque.
Currently I am equidistant between 3 but they are all of sufficient distance that the call to prayer is not too loud and if I am honest I rarely hear it. During ramadan they all crank them up a bit and so you can hear Mr Shouty going for it but again its not too bad.
Thankfully I am blessed with the ability to sleep through pretty much anything..... hence my living in Mirdif for several years. I don't even acknowledge the planes anymore.
Currently I am equidistant between 3 but they are all of sufficient distance that the call to prayer is not too loud and if I am honest I rarely hear it. During ramadan they all crank them up a bit and so you can hear Mr Shouty going for it but again its not too bad.
Thankfully I am blessed with the ability to sleep through pretty much anything..... hence my living in Mirdif for several years. I don't even acknowledge the planes anymore.
Jan 21st 2018, 6:32 am
#12
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Jan 2011
Location: Dubai
Posts: 3,467
Re: The fajr call to prayer
During the last 10 nights of Ramadan - so called Laylat al Qad'r - they perform the hajjut prayer which goes on for the best part of an hour in the middle of the night (between 2:00 and 3:30am). Given that apparently you get extra credit for prayers during this time, the gates of hell are closed and so and so so on, the intensity of the praying also kicks up significantly adding to the already raised volume. I always try to travel during that time....
Jan 21st 2018, 8:31 am
#13
...we killed the flame
Joined: Jan 2017
Location: Dubai
Posts: 1,086
Re: The fajr call to prayer
Anyway, bear in mind that Arabic, especially in the style spoken by native speakers from Egypt and the Cham, has the propensity to sound angry even when the most benevolent sentiments are being expressed.
Jan 21st 2018, 8:37 am
#14
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Nov 2012
Location: bute
Posts: 9,740
Re: The fajr call to prayer
I find Koranic Recitation quite melodic. And I am a practising Orthodox Christian !
As for the Azan, it has never bothered me and I must have heard it thousands of times.
As for the Azan, it has never bothered me and I must have heard it thousands of times.
Jan 21st 2018, 9:58 am
#15
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Jul 2008
Location: Dubai
Posts: 2,843
Re: The fajr call to prayer
That's because it's not the call to prayer (the Azhan), it's the prayer itself, which on Friday, especially, does go on and on.
So please allow me one more opportunity to educate IKN on another usually completely misunderstood aspect of local life here that seems to never penetrate the expat bubble.
In Dubai, mosques are allowed to broadcast the prayer itself as well as the azhan. Broadcasting the prayer, of course, has no tradition in Islam and only dates to the arrival of loudspeaker technology. In Abu Dhabi they are not allowed to broadcast prayer at all, only the azhan. In the city of AD, there is a synchronised azhan so that you don't have the duelling loudspeakers effect that you get in Dubai and many cities in the region.
The azhan lasts only about 1 minute and is performed by a muezzin who usually has a voice trained for this. He used to climb the minaret to do it; now he probably records it from his workers' camp accommodation. The azhan is therefore often pleasant and musical. The prayer, by contrast, is performed by an imam who is usually a Yemeni or Egyptian, riven with all sorts of status and economic resentments that are unfortunately all too audible in their vocally untrained shrieking. This harshness is invariably amplified by the hideous tinny sound system used.
Fajr is of course the issue, as this is the dawn prayer and the one most likely to keep you awake. It goes on for about 15 minutes with a break in the middle. The break is the cruellest part because it just about allows you to nod back off again before the cacophony resumes to jolt you from your slumber to realise finally that sleep is a lost cause...
Even if you don't want to move to AD, you are entitled to pursue the issue. Mosques are not supposed to disturb their local communities and interestingly you will usually find the ones in areas where locals live are the quietest. So you can try and speak to somebody at the mosque but that takes some cojones and also it can be pretty difficult to find somebody who is actually in charge of anything (a prominent member of the congregation using the mosque would be your best bet). Imams are generally low-paid low-status government employees and often won't speak much English so, even if you can find the offending party, you may not get any joy from him. But it could be a culturally enlightening experience from which IKN could seriously benefit.
Alternatively contact your building/estate management. They are supposed to follow up on these complaints. Or you can go directly to the Ministry of Awqaf & Islamic Affairs. Look up their number online. If you can get the phone answered, they are usually very pleasant (one lady once kept charmingly addressing me as "my bruzzer"). They may try to bounce you back to your building/estate managers though. Insist and they will follow up and then text you later to check if you are happy with their service. They will be quite receptive to a complaint about prayer volume in particular.
One thing though: in order for Awqaf to follow up on a complaint, you must have the name of the mosque, which you may have to dig around to find but it will have a specific name (could be named after a person or an area or some abstraction etc.). Just the location is not enough.
After many years of battling with the mosque, which arrived in my heavily non-muslim area well after I did, I have found an approach that results in the greatest level of satisfaction. I have developed a technique of sleeping on my side with one ear buried in the pillow underneath and the other ear covered by another pillow that I hold against the other side of my head - also deals with the bf's snoring....
So please allow me one more opportunity to educate IKN on another usually completely misunderstood aspect of local life here that seems to never penetrate the expat bubble.
In Dubai, mosques are allowed to broadcast the prayer itself as well as the azhan. Broadcasting the prayer, of course, has no tradition in Islam and only dates to the arrival of loudspeaker technology. In Abu Dhabi they are not allowed to broadcast prayer at all, only the azhan. In the city of AD, there is a synchronised azhan so that you don't have the duelling loudspeakers effect that you get in Dubai and many cities in the region.
The azhan lasts only about 1 minute and is performed by a muezzin who usually has a voice trained for this. He used to climb the minaret to do it; now he probably records it from his workers' camp accommodation. The azhan is therefore often pleasant and musical. The prayer, by contrast, is performed by an imam who is usually a Yemeni or Egyptian, riven with all sorts of status and economic resentments that are unfortunately all too audible in their vocally untrained shrieking. This harshness is invariably amplified by the hideous tinny sound system used.
Fajr is of course the issue, as this is the dawn prayer and the one most likely to keep you awake. It goes on for about 15 minutes with a break in the middle. The break is the cruellest part because it just about allows you to nod back off again before the cacophony resumes to jolt you from your slumber to realise finally that sleep is a lost cause...
Even if you don't want to move to AD, you are entitled to pursue the issue. Mosques are not supposed to disturb their local communities and interestingly you will usually find the ones in areas where locals live are the quietest. So you can try and speak to somebody at the mosque but that takes some cojones and also it can be pretty difficult to find somebody who is actually in charge of anything (a prominent member of the congregation using the mosque would be your best bet). Imams are generally low-paid low-status government employees and often won't speak much English so, even if you can find the offending party, you may not get any joy from him. But it could be a culturally enlightening experience from which IKN could seriously benefit.
Alternatively contact your building/estate management. They are supposed to follow up on these complaints. Or you can go directly to the Ministry of Awqaf & Islamic Affairs. Look up their number online. If you can get the phone answered, they are usually very pleasant (one lady once kept charmingly addressing me as "my bruzzer"). They may try to bounce you back to your building/estate managers though. Insist and they will follow up and then text you later to check if you are happy with their service. They will be quite receptive to a complaint about prayer volume in particular.
One thing though: in order for Awqaf to follow up on a complaint, you must have the name of the mosque, which you may have to dig around to find but it will have a specific name (could be named after a person or an area or some abstraction etc.). Just the location is not enough.
After many years of battling with the mosque, which arrived in my heavily non-muslim area well after I did, I have found an approach that results in the greatest level of satisfaction. I have developed a technique of sleeping on my side with one ear buried in the pillow underneath and the other ear covered by another pillow that I hold against the other side of my head - also deals with the bf's snoring....
IKN where you been yaar?
