Ibrahim Al Madani

Sheikh Ibrahim bin Adel Hamza Al-Madani was a muezzin of Masjid al-Haram, the Grand Mosque in Makkah, whose dawn call to prayer became familiar to Muslims worldwide through live broadcasts and shared recordings from Islam's holiest mosque. He died in Makkah in the early hours of Monday, 21 September 2026, hours after delivering what proved to be his final Fajr adhan. Inside the Haramain, an account that covers the Two Holy Mosques, announced his death the same morning and shared footage of that last call. His funeral prayer was offered after Asr at Masjid al-Haram, led by Sheikh Waleed Shamsan, and he was buried at Al-Mualla Cemetery in Makkah.

Al-Madani was born in Madinah in 1976 into a religious household. His grandfather was a hafiz of the Quran and shaped his early love of scripture and worship. He earned an academic qualification in Quranic Studies and began calling the adhan at about fifteen at a neighbourhood mosque in Madinah, first in an Egyptian style and then in the traditional Madinan style, serving on rotation with three neighbours through school and college. He later paused while teaching outside Madinah, then returned to the adhan at Masjid Al-Maddah from about 1428 AH (2007-08) until his appointment to the Grand Mosque.

He was formally appointed a muadhin of Masjid al-Haram in Ramadan 1439 AH (2018). He became one of the mosque's principal muezzins among a group of about twenty-four, with six typically rotating each day across the five daily prayers and the pre-dawn call. He was especially associated with the Fajr adhan and with the takbeerat, and he also performed tabligh, relaying the imam's takbeerat from the mukabbariyyah so the vast congregation could follow. Raised in the Madinan school's gentler, ornamented style, he also learned the shorter, more majestic Makkan style from Sheikh Abdul Latif Mulla, a former Grand Mosque muezzin and friend of his grandfather. He once described the move from Madinah to Makkah as an immense blessing, and recalled staying awake the night before his first adhan at the Sacred Mosque from sheer responsibility.

Reports on the day of his death said he had been receiving treatment for an illness; no official cause was publicly disclosed. Age reports varied across outlets, generally placing him in his late forties to about fifty. What was not in doubt was the outpouring that followed: worshippers shared his adhan and takbeerat, and colleagues remembered a man who sometimes spent days in the mukabbariyyah devoted to night worship. On People Forever he is remembered as the Madinan-trained voice whose dawn call from the Grand Mosque marked the start of the day for millions.