How did the Athan start? — credits

Sources for the story

• Sahih al-Bukhari 604 (Ibn ʿUmar): the Muslims in Madinah gathered and estimated the prayer time; no one called for it; a bell like the Christians' and a horn like the Jews' were suggested.
• Sahih al-Bukhari 603 (Anas): fire and the bell were mentioned.
• Sunan Abi Dawud 499 (ʿAbdullah ibn Zayd): the dream, “Shall I show you something better?”, the words of the Athan, “It is a true vision, in shāʾ Allāh… teach Bilal, for his voice is more resonant than yours”, and ʿUmar coming out dragging his cloak.
• Jamiʿ at-Tirmidhi 189 (“more resonant and further-reaching”), Sunan Ibn Majah 706 (two green garments).
• The Athan was legislated in Madinah in the first year after the Hijrah, after the Prophet's ﷺ mosque was built (the stronger view; some say the second year).
• Research and verification with Qaf, which retrieves classical sources with citations (including Irshad al-Sari, Mirqat al-Mafatih, al-Majmuʿ and al-Mawsuʿa al-Fiqhiyya).

Out of respect, the Prophet ﷺ is never depicted, and the companions are shown only from behind.

Made with

• Narration: Google Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS (voice “Algieba”), directed and edited for this film.
• Illustrations: Google Gemini 3.1 Flash Image (backgrounds) and OpenAI GPT Image 2.5 (cut-outs), art-directed and reviewed frame by frame.
• Typefaces (SIL Open Font License): Caveat Brush, Caveat, Patrick Hand, Aref Ruqaa.
• Animation engine, sound design and mix: written for this film.

Sound

No music is used. All sound effects are CC0 unless noted.

• amb_dawn_birds — #573080 "Dawn Chorus Birdsong" by squashy555, CC0 1.0. Edits: 10 s, 0.8 s fade-in/1.2 s fade-out, -24 LUFS
• amb_dawn_birds_loop — #573080 "Dawn Chorus Birdsong" by squashy555, CC0 1.0. Edits: 10 s seamless loop, -24 LUFS
• amb_fire_crackle — #363092 "Fire Crackle and Flames 002" by TheWoodlandNomad, CC0 1.0. Edits: 10 s seamless crackle loop, -24 LUFS
• amb_night — #522299 "Crickets At Night - Raw sound"
  #165526 "Wind singing in the mountain, some night cricket in background" by Defelozedd94
  felix.blume, CC0 1.0
  CC0 1.0. Edits: mixed 55/45 (RMS matched), 20 s seamless loop (2 s crossfade), -26 LUFS
• athan_3 — Adhan Recordings from Doha, Qatar - 04 Maghrib Adhan (recorded 2013-2014) (Internet Archive) by Uploader "Doha, Qatar" (muezzin not named), Public Domain Mark 1.0 (as labelled by uploader). Edits: source 0-139.6 s; trimmed (final t = source t - 0.010 s), 70 Hz high-pass, -16 LUFS, fades, 48k/16-bit stereo
• sfx_cloth_swish_2 — #391448 "Shirt Whoosh 1.wav" by saturdaysoundguy, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 9.60-10.30 s; HPF 80 Hz,FFT denoise 10 dB (floor -72); trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
• sfx_cloth_swish_3 — #320144 "Blanket Movement 6" by OwlStorm, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.00-1.16 s; HPF 80 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
• sfx_dream_glitter — #211624 "Magic Wand Glitter" by qubodup, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 4.70-7.95 s; no EQ; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
• sfx_dream_shimmer_1 — synthesized for this film: Sparkle texture: ~190 tiny decaying inharmonic sine grains (2.5-9 kHz, random pitch/pan/length) + band-swept airy noise swell, short cross-channel diffusion taps. Non-instrumental.
• sfx_dream_shimmer_2 — synthesized for this film: Same engine, 6 s, 3-10 kHz, sparser - for the dream sequence.
• sfx_dream_shimmer_short — synthesized for this film: Same engine, 1.6 s dense sparkle sting.
• sfx_fire_ignite — #186374 "Bonfire Being Lit" by samararaine, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 1.00-4.50 s; HPF 40 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
• sfx_hand_bell — #200318 "Hand Bell.wav" by WebbFilmsUK, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.00-2.25 s; HPF 150 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
• sfx_paper_rustle_2 — #181774 "rustling paper.wav" by keweldog, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 2.50-4.45 s; HPF 80 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
• sfx_paper_rustle_3 — #449127 "Rustling Paper" by HarpyHarpHarp, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 1.45-2.15 s; HPF 80 Hz,FFT denoise 10 dB (floor -60); trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
• sfx_paper_slide_1 — #464302 "PaperSlide.wav" by eyesonlegs, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.00-1.64 s; HPF 60 Hz,FFT denoise 10 dB (floor -55); trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
• sfx_paper_slide_2 — #444431 "Sliding Envelope.wav" by MTJohnson, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.20-1.10 s; HPF 80 Hz; trim, fades, peak -3 dBFS
• sfx_paper_tear_1 — #272028 "Ripping Paper" by aldenroth2, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.00-1.96 s; HPF 60 Hz,FFT denoise 8 dB (floor -60); trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
• sfx_paper_tear_2 — #342541 "Fast Paper Rip" by sgrowe, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.00-0.89 s; HPF 60 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
• sfx_paper_tear_3 — #170311 "Tearing paper" by ludde44, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.20-1.52 s; HPF 60 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
• sfx_pencil_scribble_1 — #257518 "Scribble_short.wav" by waldram, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.00-1.27 s; HPF 150 Hz,FFT denoise 12 dB (floor -50); trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
• sfx_pencil_scribble_2 — #85703 "Pencil_scibble.aif" by tmkappelt, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.00-3.20 s; HPF 150 Hz,FFT denoise 12 dB (floor -62); trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
• sfx_rooster_crow_2 — #200339 "Rooster crow" by jsbarrett, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 1.10-3.60 s; HPF 150 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
• sfx_shofar_horn_1 — #479310 "shofar blast medium length two tone.m4a" by Sonicsheep, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 1.55-4.40 s; HPF 100 Hz,FFT denoise 12 dB (floor -55); trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
• sfx_stamp_thump_1 — #448474 "es-stamp.wav" by eddies2000, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.95-1.65 s; HPF 40 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
• sfx_stamp_thump_2 — #470710 "traditional stamp.wav" by I.fekry, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.40-1.20 s; HPF 40 Hz; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
• sfx_whoosh_1 — #701104 "Whoosh stereo light (transition)" by xkeril, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.10-2.32 s; no EQ; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
• sfx_whoosh_2 — #683101 "quick woosh" by florianreichelt, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.05-2.05 s; no EQ; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
• sfx_whoosh_4 — #60013 "Whoosh" by qubodup, CC0 1.0. Edits: cut 0.00-0.43 s; no EQ; trim, fades, peak -1 dBFS
• sfx_whoosh_soft_synth — synthesized for this film: White noise through a time-varying log-Gaussian band-pass sweeping 300 Hz -> 2.2 kHz, swell envelope, slow L->R pan.