The Faces Behind The Call To Prayer

The call of prayer is heard all over Jakarta five times a day—in kampungs, your office building or even fancy mansions. For those celebrating Eid al Adha today, it's music to their ears.

To commemorate the holy day, we visited mosques around Jakarta to snap portraits of the man behind the mic, the Muadzin, who is heard but usually not seen.

The sound of adzan may be familiar to many but after visiting some mosques in Jakarta, each person who does the call has their own style—Like Istiqlal, the Muadzin is very private and comes out from the gigantic back door and goes straight to the mic without a word, and in one of the mosque I visited in Kebon Jeruk, the local handy man is also the Muadzin.

I learned that not all mosques have a full time muadzin, anyone who feels responsible to call the prayer can stand at the mic. So next time when you pass a mosque with an open mic, maybe you should try.