Page:Thomas Patrick Hughes - Notes on Muhammadanism - 2ed. (1877).djvu/138

 Rh "God is great! God is great! God is great! God is great! I bear witness that there is no God but God! (repeated twice) I bear witness that Muhammad is the Apostle of God! (repeated twice) Come to prayers! Come to prayers! Come to salvation! Come to salvation! God is great! There is no other God but God!"

In the early morning the following sentence is added: "Prayers are better than sleep."

The summons to prayer was, at first, the simple cry, "Come to prayer." Bingham tells us that a similar custom existed at Jerusalem (vide Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 489): "In the monastery of virgins which Paula, the famous Roman lady, set up, and governed at Jerusalem, the signal was given by one going about and singing halleluja, for that was their call to church, as St. Jerome informs us."

The Iqámat (lit. "causing to stand") is a recitation at the commencement of prayers in a congregation, after the worshippers have taken