Mumbai: Giving the call to worship for 25 years from Colaba mosque

Altaf Hussain, a muezzin while giving azaan in the morning at Colaba. (Express photo by Santosh Parab)

AT 3.30 am every day, 47-year-old Altaf Hussain is up and about. Hours before the break of dawn, he gets ready to sound the first azaan (call to worship), reminding people to wake up in time for the day’s first namaaz.

Hussain, who has been reciting the azaan at the Colaba mosque for the last 25 years, said he turns in no later than 11.30 pm to ensure that he is up before sunrise. He travels from his Navy Nagar home to the mosque near the Colaba market on his motorcycle. He then gives a three-minute azaan in Arabic from the first floor of the mosque minaret.

“The time of azaan changes depending on the time of the first prayer. At present, I am giving the azaan at 5.10 am… but it keeps on changing and sometimes is held as early as 4.30 am during Ramzaan,” said Hussain.

“I give azaan five times in a day. But the morning azaan has an extra line, which says that prayer is better than sleep and request believers to wake up and come to the mosque for prayers. After the azaan, many come to the mosque for first prayers…. which starts 30 minutes after the azaan. More than 60 people turn up for the first prayers every day,” he said.

Hussain learnt reciting the azaan in 1990. As he got better, he was asked to give the first azaan from the minaret of the Colaba mosque by then trustees. He also teaches the tenets of Islam at Darul Uloom Hanfia Razvia, a boarding school affiliated to the mosque’s trust.

“After azaan, we have to take care of 150 students studying in our boarding school. So, from 7 am to 8 am, we eat breakfast and later, I teach. We have teachers for different subjects,” said Hussain.

Hailing from Khalilabad in Uttar Pradesh, Hussain had come to Mumbai in 1988. “My father used to stay in Vikhroli… because of which my four brothers and I came to Mumbai. I studied Islam for two years in the same boarding school when I teach. Since 1993, I have been giving azaan at the mosque.”

A father of five, Hussain said there are times when he sleeps in the mosque. “We are always busy taking care of the mosque and the children, so whenever I am late, I avoid going home and sleep in the mosque so that I wake up on time for the azaan.”