Abdullah ibn Zayd al-Ansari

An Ansari companion from the Khazraj tribe of Madinah. He is known in Islamic history by the title Ṣāḥib al-Qiṣṣah, "the one of the story", referring to one specific distinction that made him permanently famous: he was the companion who dreamed the Adhān.

In the first month or two after the Prophet ﷺ arrived in Madinah, the community needed a way to call people to prayer. The Prophet ﷺ assembled the Companions and asked for suggestions. Various ideas were proposed, using a bell (as Christians do), or a horn/shofar (as the Jews do), but none were accepted, including the bell because the Prophet ﷺ had a particular dislike of bells and said that angels do not accompany a caravan with a bell.

The gathering ended inconclusively. That night, ʿAbdullāh ibn Zayd had a vivid dream: he saw a man selling a bell. He approached the man and asked to buy it; the man asked why. He explained that the Prophet ﷺ was looking for a way to call people to prayer. The man said: "Shall I not tell you something better than that?" Then the man recited the full words of the Adhān, the exact phrasing we know today, one phrase at a time.

He woke up, threw on his garment, and rushed directly to the Prophet ﷺ to report the dream. The Prophet ﷺ said: "Innaha la-ruʾyā ḥaqq", "This is indeed a true dream, inshaAllāh." He then told him to go with Bilāl ibn Abī Rabāḥ, who had the loudest voice, to the roof of the mosque, and to dictate each phrase to Bilāl, who would then proclaim it to the city.

That is the story of ʿAbdullāh ibn Zayd. Beyond it, Ibn Ḥajar says that essentially nothing else is recorded about him. Ṣāḥib al-Qiṣṣah. The man of the story. Whatever it was that made Allāh choose him for this honor is not recorded. But his name is attached permanently to one of the most recognizable acts of worship in Islam, called out five times a day in every corner of the world.