Ezan means call for prayer for Muslims. For a believer, it is a signal that they should leave all the works they are doing at the time and go to a mosque to pray, or simply pray at home.
Ezan is usually performed by people who have a nice and piercing voice. In the tradition of Bosniaks, a muezzin enjoys a great reputation, so it is not surprising that in some of the most beautiful and most important mosques ezan is performed precisely by muezzins who have the most beautiful voices.
The best evidence for this fact is hafiz Selim Effendi Hoši, who is considered one of the best performers of ezan in Sarajevo. He is calling the believers for prayer for the past three decades. Over the last several years, he is a muezzin in the Emperor’s Mosque, one of the oldest mosques in Sarajevo, which also accommodates the headquarters of the head of Bosniaks.
Theologians explain that ezan was ordered after Hijra, i.e. the pilgrimage of the Prophet Muhammad with first Muslims from Makkah to Medina, the point from which the Islamic calendar is counted.
According to tradition of Bosniaks, if they cannot make it to pray on time, believers at least stop doing whatever they are doing at the moment, while the muezzin calls for prayer. Every conversation stops, too. Ezan for Maghrib prayer also means that children must terminate the play for that day and go home.
(Source: nap.ba/photo: nap.ba)
