Each day across the entire Islamic World men called the muezzin call the faithful to prayer five times per day: at dawn (fajr), noon (dhuhr), in the afternoon (asr), at sunset (maghrib) and nightfall (isha’a). On Fridays all male Muslims are supposed to attend the noon time prayers which are usually accompanied by a sermon. So today, Friday August 13, 2010 literally hundreds of thousands of muezzin are calling the faithful to prayer. Many millions of Muslim men will go to the mosque as their local muezzin pronounces the call to prayer. Below are the words which are repeated day after day (Shiite Muslims use slightly different phrases for some lines).

Prayer in Islam is generally not meant to bring one’s self into direct personal contact or communion with Allah. Even when Muslims speak of prayer as communication with Allah they are never thinking that Allah will actually speak back to them. The communication is always one way. In the very small Sufi Muslim minority one can speak of meeting God. However